


Blue Eyes

by SaiSuki1329



Series: Tony (Techno)Mancer [1]
Category: Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Technomancer (Video Game), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Electricity, Eventual Happy Ending, Graphic Description, M/M, Mpreg, Mutant Tony Stark, Out of Character, Sentient Death, Slow Burn, Technomancer, Threesome - M/M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 13:15:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 51,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7575346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaiSuki1329/pseuds/SaiSuki1329
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It seems that you are in possession of a gene most notably found in the population called Mutants. The X-gene in your DNA seems intrinsically developed and active in every cell in your body and seems to be causing an almost slowing effect at the rate in which these cells age and also seemingly causing a disruption and quick healing in those that would otherwise be damaged by your outlandish lifestyle. In simple terms sir, you are aging just at a slower rate than most and yet healing at a faster rate”</p><p>Tony is both intrigued and sickened. Not because he’s damn near immortal, though that might be stretching the term a bit, but because he now has proof that he is the very thing that Maria Stark had feared him to be.</p><p>Tony Stark is a Mutant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or their backgrounds.
> 
> Hello! This will be my first work published/posted online for the world to see. But I've been writing fanfic for a very long time. Anyways as I'm new to this website and posting thing if you see any mistakes or even can come up with a way to make something better just let me know!
> 
> For all of you who read this fanfic, please realize that while I am a Chemistry major in college I am still learning. So if some of the science seems a bit off or unrealistic just run with it. I've tried to keep it simple and vague but things can sometimes get away from me. 
> 
> My goal is to post at least once a week every Sunday. You might get chapters sooner or a little later than that. But I'll always try to be on time.
> 
> Also this fanfic doesn't have a Beta reader and I don't have the slightest idea on how to get one. So if you want to do it or know someone who would or just know how to get one, leave a comment or inbox me.
> 
> (For the intents of this fanfic I’m switching Age of Ultron to happen before Ironman 3)

_“No one else can take risks for us, or face our losses on our behalf, or give us self-esteem. No one can spare us from life's slings and arrows, and when death comes, we meet it alone.”_

**Martha Beck**

 

It is perhaps in your dying moment, the surreal time in which your entire life seems to flash before your eyes, that you begin to regret. And in that regret for only a short amount of time, though it might feel as though it has been forever, you also begin to pray. Or is the proper term beg? To silently plead for mercy, even when you know none will be found. Death is heartless, and cold. It knows not what mercy is and doesn't care to court with regrets.  

But there are rare moments that give even Death pause, moments that Death listens with kind ears and a compassionate demeanor. However it is not the moments when in death the victim screams for themselves, but when with all their soul, heart, and mind, that they scream for the protection of someone else. For to love someone so greatly that in your last moments you see not your life flash before your eyes, but theirs. Those are the moments that Death kills for.

Yet none other than Maria Stark has given Death its very own feast of love. As she counts her regrets she does not start with her own life, but instead with the ones she gave life to and Death watches with interest and hunger for the story to unfold.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maria Stark was a proud woman, yet also compassionate. The only person who could strong arm her husband, Howard Stark, into doing exactly what she wanted no matter how much he was against it. It is perhaps because of this that when Maria gives birth to two fraternal twin boys, one as beautiful as she is and the other a spitting image of a demon, that when she has the demon sent far away he does not question her.

Maria knows in her heart that the child she has given away will be safer, happier away from the shit storm that is being a Stark. That as a Mutant born with external features in the 70’s this is what a mother has to do to make sure her child never faces the horrors of the world of being an Heir.

It does not stop her from grieving though, reverently cradling her beautiful baby boy in her arms who she is sure gazes at her with the eyes of someone thoroughly betrayed.

Howard does his job well though and not only pays off the midwife who assisted in the birth, as all Stark children have always been born within the walls of Stark Mansion, but also sets the cast off child up with people across the ocean who will protect him and treat him with love.

And so Anthony Edward Stark was born and Arno Isaac Stark disappeared for a very long time.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Growing up Anthony, or Tony as Maria affectionately called him, was different. Never intellectually his age and Maria always attributed it good genes. Both her and Howard were geniuses in their own right, of course their son would show such traits.

It isn’t until he’s five years old that Maria begins to realize that this went beyond anything to do with genes and genius parents. She is shocked at first when Tony seems to completely dismantle both the toaster and industrial coffee machine only to seemingly create a robotic dog.

She figures it has something to do with his constant insistence at wanting one and Howard denying him at every turn, and Maria thinks it's a horrible idea herself just because of how young Tony still is.

Yet she's quite bemused to be standing in Tony’s doorway that evening, both the coffee machine and toaster remains littering his room and looking at something that could for all intents and purposes be a mechanical dog. Not a very big one, or very well made but she is still surprised. And then once that has worn off she is terrified.

She calls to Edwin Jarvis, essentially Tony’s caregiver,  who mentioned the missing items just yesterday morning. When he comes to the door the man looks almost relieved at the mess that Tony has created and Maria begins to wonder if she has been missing the signs all along.

When questioned Jarvis admits to Tony taking other household items and dismantling them, but he typically puts them back together before they can be missed. Maria vaguely remembers the time she found the crockpot on the floor in the livingroom when Tony was only three years old. She had simply shrugged it off as something accidently left behind by the cleaning lady who came once a week but now she is beginning to understand that Tony had likely tampered with it.

Maria thinks to be mad, that it is her right to be upset that such a development in her child's life has been kept from her, yet the look in Tony's dark brown eyes, as if all in the world is bright and innocent, causes her to hold her scold inside.

She goes to get Howard instead, which is a decision she soon sees is the worst thing she could have done. Her husband is fascinated by what Tony is able to do. Says that the dog will never actually run, or work but the concept behind why each part is situated the way it is, is sound. Tony for his part looks proud of his dog, while disappointed in it not running, though he admits to knowing that it wouldn’t, he is happy to see his father show him any attention beyond calling him his Heir to the media.

It is here of course that things go downhill and Maria in her haste to retrieve Howard and show him exactly what their son had created, forgot that before everything else Howard is a scientist and engineer. He begins to question Tony on why he placed certain things in certain places, places that he himself would not have thought too, but now see how they are better suited Tony’s way.

Maria is not surprised by the answer that is given. It only deepens her suspicions and grips her heart in fear.

“It just felt right, seemed like it should go there, thats where its meant to be, it's where the pieces told me they belong for what I wanted”

Howard is furious, or perhaps the word is disappointed. He tells Tony that any creation made without being able to explain why or how, is something not meant to be created at all. And that is how Tony learns his first lesson from his father. With a scolding and sharp voice that leaves him with tears in his eyes and staring at his father retreating back.

Maria swoops in to coddle her child and whispers soothing words. Tony does not understand what he has done wrong, and Maria knows that he will likely never understand. What she does instead of explaining to him, telling him the truth of what he is, she attempts to cover it up.

The next day Maria has hired the best tutors and ordered every beginner to expert level books on literature, social studies, and especially science that she can buy. She concludes that as long as Tony can explain how things work people will never question why he thought of it that way to begin with.

Maria is content with this solution even though it fills her heart with sorrow.

And she writes the beginnings of a letter that she hopes Tony will never have to read.

When Tony is eight years old Maria watches as he essentially turns the coffee machine on without touching it. Maria is shocked enough that she thanks him and literally watches as the very machine Tony had once taken apart begins to brew. She is silently thankful that Tony is now able to explain his thought process on things he creates but this is not something that can be so easily hidden.

So she personally teaches him etiquettes and in her grueling lessons she drills into him the rudeness behind using such _powers_ in front of others.

At thirteen she fearful watches as he does the same thing to the TV, the telephone, and the lights. And wonders just how much of her soul she’d be willing to give up if she could just have a child that was normal. Then she looks at Tony's determined eyes, a once dark chocolate brown and yet now turning an almost blueish hue, and realizes that she would give nothing but the world and herself just to keep the child she was blessed with.

When Tony is sixteen him and Howard would have fought, argued, and drawn battle lines many times before. Pride and Stubbornness on both their parts clouding how similar they really are. But it is when Tony is sixteen that a deeper strife between the two seem to emerge. Tony is as sheltered as any child can be. Something that Maria has done her best to hide but now watches it blow up in her face.

Tony wants to go to _college._ Far away from Maria in her vigilant eyes yet loving embraces and Jarvis’ wry stares yet comforting smiles. Maria panics and she finds herself before her husband pleading for him to stop such a thing from happening. He is confused by this, finds that Tony leaving to become what he deems a _‘man’_ , is needed. But Maria knows Howard is not privy to everything that is their son, that he is unaware of the developments that his child has gone through over the years. Has probably not even noticed his eyes change from brown to blue as his abilities grew. Even now they are a dark blue that could easily pass as being hazel in certain lights, but Maria knows this is only the beginning.

And Maria is the only woman in the world who could make Howard Stark agree with her even without a legitimate reason. So Howard offers his sixteen year old son a position at his Company, a whole science department dedicated to whatever he wanted and a chance to learn the ropes, before one day becoming CEO of Stark Industries.

Maria could not even begin to wonder how spectacularly this would explode in her face.

She's faced with a fight straight from hell in which Tony actually causes half the lightbulbs in the house to combust. She is only thankful that it is after Howard has stormed from the premises that it happens but Maria is now left with a child who will not be talked down from leaving.

She wonders how this could have happened to her and when she questions her child on his reasoning for turning his father's offer down his answer bewilders her and yet makes her proud.

“I will not be given a position that I have not _earned_! I don’t want to simply be handed things in life because of my last name. I want people to look at me and never doubt that whatever title I've gained I've deserved, whether it be good or bad”

It isn’t until later that she finds out that the person who has put such nonsense into Tony’s head that going away for college was a right of passage and an earning of respect was Obadiah Stane, that she gets this inkling of worry in her chest.

When Tony comes back from college at nineteen, he's _different_. She can see it in his blue eyes, as there is no mistaking the color for hazel any long, that he **_knows_ ** . Has figured out the _secret_ that she's been keeping from the world and wonders how she could be so stupid as to think that she could keep her own child ignorant of what he is. She knows that he knows, she knows. Yet they do not speak on it. In fact she rarely sees the child she raised anymore in this new person who seems to wear his face. The four years away, in which Tony has done the impossible and gotten a PhD not a Bachelor's degree, has not been kind to him. Or perhaps that is wrong way of seeing it.

Maria watches her child and sees how aware of himself he is. How he has come to realize that everyone is always watching. This is the first time she's seen such a mask on her child's face, something so complex that you’d never know it was a mask to begin with. Tony parties and drinks, even though he’s underage, he’s irresponsible, and seems to spend money frivolously. Yet Maria watches and examines, she realizes that this is how Tony has decided to cope, to hide. That this is what he’s doing so that every eccentricity that his abilities give him will be easily brushed aside.

In her heart Maria feels cold, for this is what she has sown into her own child. Taught him to hide away part of himself so that he will not be persecuted for what he is. She has taught her child to hate and fear himself.

In 1989 when the worldwide web is created, when Tony is nineteen and fresh home from college with a PhD. She watches as he disappears further from her eyes. Watches as the blue of his eyes seem to glow brighter with each passing day. She doesn’t say anything because she knows she has reaped what she's sown.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maria as she cries taking her last breath as she turns her own dull blue eyes on to her killer, she regrets. Regrets the child she once gave up and lost track of, regrets the child she raised in fear, regrets allowing her own fear to cloud her judgement, regrets, regrets, regrets. But to her killer she glared with the heat of a woman who has never been cowed a day in her life.

And Death pauses to watch such a woman die so tragically.

When Tony is twenty-one his parents die, it's said to be a car accident and he believes it because believing anything else would only drive him crazy.

At the funeral he speaks nothing of his father, knows that is what the reporters and media wants to hear from him, yet knowing that his father is a man that he barely knew. One he could never make proud no matter how hard he tried. So he speaks on his mother instead,

“Maria Stark was a wonderful woman, not only a great wife, but the best mother any child could possibly have…”

And Maria long dead still regrets never having taught her child the biggest lesson he should have learned.

Never Fear Being Yourself.

* * *

 

**Age 27**

Tony Stark is the Merchant of Death, a title rightfully won by his development in weapons. He watches as the numbers stack up and silently forgets what it feels like to truly be himself. He forgets the care free child of his younger days. He erases Maria Stark's baby and in his place cuts out a position for himself in the world.

He once told his mother that he would earn all that he was deserved in life. And still the words hold true. Tony Stark is a billionaire, a playboy, a drunk, and an irresponsible business man. He drives his personal assistant Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts crazy with his escapades and yet he watches as she fights through each incident and scandal with the grace of a woman he once thought he knew. Tony doesn’t know when he started looking at Pepper and seeing his mother but once he does he can’t seem to unsee it. Edwin Jarvis, Jeeves as Tony calls the old man, would likely say they’d end up married soon enough. But nowadays Jeeves doesn’t say much, and when he does speak it is with a voice of confusion about what year it is and what time he has missed and how Tony seemed to age so quickly when only yesterday he was still learning the ropes of being CEO of Stark Industries.

Yet in the end Tony would laugh, to hide his sorrow, and tell him all that he has missed again and again, until he remembered, if only for a day. Tony would likely remind Jeeves that Pepper is like Maria but in the end she is not. Even though they seem to constantly play house with each other.

He is the unsociable, drunk, and cocky Howard and Pepper is his Maria, calm, level headed, and able to get him to agree to mostly anything.

Which is how he ends up in Afghanistan showing the military his new Jericho weapon even though he’d rather be anywhere but the hell hole that is the Middle East.

He doesn’t understand why his presents is needed, the military was never interested in how things worked, as long as they did. And it's not as though he will be signing any contracts with them without Pepper first having it screened by Stark Industry lawyers and big wigs.

The only forgiving thing on the trip is James Rhodes, or Rhodey, Tony’s college buddy. Only person in his class who didn’t ask if a sixteen year old Tony was lost and looking for his tour group. The guy had even gone out of his way to ask Tony for help with certain classes, and in return for that help Rhodey got Tony into all the parties he’d only dreamed of being invited to. At the end of it they ended up becoming great friends even before Rhodey left for active duty in the military.

Of course the moment that Tony is beginning to get everyone in uniform in his humvee to relax is when all hell breaks loose. Tony is thrown from the car and all he can think about is the fucking seat belt he’ll be wearing from now on. He then thinks as he's stumbles to his feet that it could be worse, he could be-

“Oh God, I’m gonna be sick”

Tony has never seen a dead body outside of the ones being put in the ground at the time at funerals. And before him is one of the soldiers. Body contorted in an impossible position, eyes glassy, jaw unhinged, and blood slowly pooling below them into the desert sand. Tony is both fascinated and disgusted all at once and vaguely wonders if the funeral will have to be closed casket.

He does not dwell on such thoughts long as he makes a scattered stumble away from gun fire. Ducking behind a rock he thinks himself safe until he feels something land beside him. He doesn’t hear the missile that will change things for him. Doesn’t turn his head because of the thump of sand sliding away to make room for something bigger.

He turns because he feels the scream of the missile, of its electronics that snap inside of it pushing against its casing to be freed. When he turns he is almost surprised by how much he recognizes the bomb, like the one he himself has built with the help of JARVIS, his AI replicated from Jeeves brain waves. He sees the bright glow to signify the explosion to come and for a moment he is overcome with all the data that seems to pass through his head and before his eyes.

And for a second, just a brief one before it all goes dark with pain, he thinks that the blue of the energy, of this harbinger of death, is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen in his life.

From there his life is a constant blur of events and images stuck together.

Tortured to build Jericho, thoughts on whether Rhodey is okay, whether he’s alive or not, whether the funeral is open or closed casket, of twisted broken bodies littering the ground from _his_ weapons. A deep bone sickness and ache as his mind is forced to put pieces together that no longer sing quite as loudly to him.

When Yinsen dies and Tony escapes he wonders how this could have all happened to him. And he remembers the words he told his mother when he was sixteen. Tony realizes that this is what he deserves for his own ignorance.

And so he goes back to his workshop and doesn’t forget, wants to be the person his mother raised. Yet can’t make the pieces always fit together. What was once so easy as listening to the metal and electricity sing has now become harder. Their voices dulled and lowered.

When he visits Jeeves the man makes a comment that grips his heart in pain and terror.

“You have your father's eyes”

Howard Stark has always had brown eyes. And Tony knows without anyone having to tell him that his eyes is one feature he has of his mother. Her endless blues.

No one else had noticed not Rhodey, or Pepper, or Obadiah, not even the media. And Tony knows he's not going crazy when he has JARVIS check his eye color.

“Before your abduction sir your eyes were in fact Blue. Similar to Maria Stark's or your mother's. A change in eye color would typically happen in babies, as they mature sometimes eye colors darken. I am…. Unable to find why yours have changed”

Tony decides that it's best to leave that to a later date and instead focuses all his energy on trying to be Ironman. He wants to be someone who deserves the title of Maria Stark's Son, he has already earned the one of Howard's Heir. And he has found that while the crown is grand and majestic it is also built with thorns and spikes on the inside.

And it is perhaps this unending focus that he gives Ironman that he is blindsided by Obadiah Stane. The man that he had always thought of as a father, more so than Howard had ever been. Betrayal taste bitter on his tongue and the pain of slowly dying does nothing to stop or hide the ache in his soul.

And unknowingly to Tony Death waits with baited breath as it watches the child of the woman who once gave it pause, will he do the same?

The answer is _no_. Because Tony fights to live and protect. When the smoke clears Death is not disappointed at not gaining such a soul. It knows now is not Tony Stark's time. And until it is, Death will gladly collect the souls that he leaves in his path starting with Obadiah Stane.

Afterall Anthony Edward Stark is Ironman.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Age 31**

When Jeeves dies Tony is suddenly struck with the understanding that is human mortality. He understands that every breath he takes is borrowed time.

Tony Stark is dying.

And when they bury Jeeves, no family, no relatives, no media coverage, no one but Tony there to watch him go down into the cold hard dirt near Maria and Howard. Tony tells him,

“Save some room for me, I’ll be joining you soon enough”

So he gifts those he’s leaving behind with pieces of himself.

Pepper is made CEO of Stark Industries.

Rhodey is made War Machine.

This is all Tony has to give them, his heart and soul so that they may continue to live even while he is gone.

And then Nick fucking Fury had to go put a stop to his plans.

When all the smoke has cleared and the ‘bad guys’ have been stopped and put in their place by the duo known as Ironman and War Machine, Tony goes back to their graves.

“I’ll be staying just a little bit longer, don’t miss me too much”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Age 32**

When Tony is questioned on what his _‘secret’_ is. He sweats below the collar yet displays confusion to the Talk Show Host. Once again Pepper has talked him into something he absolutely hates.

It is later revealed that the Show Host is simply wondering how Tony keeps himself so young looking when he is already thirty-two. Tony breaths a nonexistent sigh of relief and shrugs it off as good genes.

It isn’t until Pepper makes the same comment except about old bones that Tony truly takes notice of his own youth.

He has JARVIS run scans and they come back normal for all his baselines. It isn’t until he questions the changes that typically take place when a person ages that things begin to fall into perspective.

“Er, sir. There are no changes at all with any of your results from when you were twenty-one. Which is an anomaly by itself considering not only your aging but also your drinking and dietary habits”

Tony is of course offended by this, he hasn’t had a drink for at least a few hours, maybe a day, which would be a record.

But the point that JARVIS is trying to make is not lost on him. Something is either terribly wrong or terrifically right with him. And he thinks he already knows just what it might be.

However Tony has also never made himself out to be a biologist or genealogist by any stretch of imagination. So he mostly leaves it to JARVIS and his other AIs, DUM-E, Butterfingers, and U, to figure out if what his mother and him has always suspected, is right.

JARVIS is never one to disappoint and by the end of the three months, after he has built everything that JARVIS has requested to make it so he can _‘properly calculate all variables_ ’, Tony’s suspicions are confirmed.

“It seems that you are in possession of a gene most notably found in the population called Mutants. The X-gene in your DNA seems intrinsically developed and active in every cell in your body and seems to be causing an almost slowing effect at the rate in which these cells age and also seemingly causing a disruption and quick healing in those that would otherwise be damaged by your outlandish lifestyle. In simple terms sir, you are aging just at a slower rate than most and yet healing at a faster rate”

Tony is both intrigued and sickened. Not because he’s damn near immortal, though that might be stretching the term a bit, but because he now has proof that he is the very thing that Maria Stark had feared him to be.

Tony Stark is a Mutant.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Age 35**

When Stark Tower is complete and the company just seems to be going in the right direction and him and Pepper are together, as in _dating_ , as in _seeing each other_ , it's only proper that shit hits the fan.

Its starts with Agent visiting and Pepper calling him **_Phil._ ** As if they are polite and civil and long lost friends of some kind. And then he had to go mention the _Avengers Initiative_.

Tony is not amused, acts as though it doesn't phase him, ‘ _not playing well with others_ ’ yet he can’t help but bristle at the fact that someone like Natasha was close enough to him to even get the chance to poke at his mask.

But then someone needs his help, specifically SHIELD, or rather not _Tony Stark's_ help but _Ironmans_.

It's all Tony can do to bite his tongue and not throw it back in their face. He's too curious about the team. And it isn’t until later that the phrase ‘Curiosity killed the cat’ seems to fit.

With Reindeer Games, or Loki as his brother Thor keeps reminding Tony, locked in a Hulk proof cage it should be easy sailing from there.

Rock of the Ages, or Loki, decides to fuck that up. And to think he was just getting to like Dr. Banner.

Next thing Tony knows he’s being told Agent is _dead._ And honestly that shouldn't be a big surprise the man decided to take on a Norse God with a gun. It shouldn’t piss Tony off, at least no more than almost being made into mincemeat by the helicarriers turbine should. The thing had been so loud with its screaming and power that Tony’s ears are still ringing. But death on his watch, of someone that he knew and had a begrudging respect for, no matter how much his Capsicle fanboying got on his nerves, is something Tony can not take lightly.

Which is how he ends up talking to the psychopath who killed him while in his own Tower. Because of course Tony Stark can’t have nice things, someone has to always ruin it for him.

And when Loki’s scepter of doom touches the metal of the arc reactor, music and data and energy fills his head until it feels like it's going to burst. While his glow stick had been a faint whisper before it now seems to want all his attention. It drowns out the clicking of the technology that surrounds the him in the Tower and all Tony can do is listen.

It is almost sentient in a way that makes it curious as to why Tony can hear it and then begins to beg Tony to free it. To give it shape and form, to make it whole. Tony can not comprehend fully what it wants but his mind is almost too cluttered by its screams to reply to Loki.

His joke on performance issues is weak and almost a reflex to simply comment. And his last irrational thought before he is thrown from his own Tower through a window, is how much he truly wants to help that spear be human.

Then Tony fights and essentially dies.

It is as he’s taking the nuke through the portal and watches as the enemy ships are slowly blown up that Tony begins to regret just as his mother did. And Death is once again given pause because Tony has but one regret and he is no different from his mother in love.

‘I never did earn the title of being considered Maria Stark's Son’

And Death looks into Tony's eye, and sees the endless blue that once stared at it with the same unwavering look of understanding. Death knows without a doubt that this child is Maria Starks.

And in that pause that Death takes to admire the eyes of the woman who once gave it feeling, Tony’s soul is snatched away. Plucked from Death's presence like electricity, quick and stinging. And Death should be mad at such defiance of the odds, should seek the soul that it owned rightful before Life and Fate seemingly intervened. But Death knows that in a way it was not them who has taken its prize but instead Death itself had released its hold, so entranced but the Blue Eyes that looked at it and showed no fear.

And if Tony awakes and remembers a bellowing black cloak and cold fingers releasing him he does not say. He only looks in the mirror in the morning and sees his father's eyes looking back.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Age 38**

Tony should know better than to let fear guide him in making decisions. But Bruce is there and he agrees and suddenly Tony has an idea. One planted in his head years ago by something inanimate that screamed to be human, to be made whole.

Ultron is an unforeseeable mistake. But if it wasn’t for little girls playing super villain he’d have never had the idea brought to the front of his head.

They all have fears and regrets. Tony didn’t want to see the people he came to look at as friends dead before him because he wasn’t strong enough to protect them.

So it can’t be blamed on him that his biggest fear caused him to create a complete murderbot bent on utterly destroying the world.

Actually considering the fact that he helped create Vision, an almost pasifistic version of said murderbot, should mean that all past mistakes involving Ultron should be negated.

And hell Tony gave up his _best friend,_ gave up the only person who knew what he was, just to create Vision. Just to get the damn screaming from the sceptre out of his head. And now looking at the creature he’s created he can’t help but think that should he ever have a legacy that at least it has JARVIS’ voice.

And JARVIS is gone, utterly destroyed in the scramble to upload him to the body. Part of him, the important pieces that make up his personality and thought processes, are inside Vision. And Tony is seemingly left with only vague coding that could never amount to what he had before.

Tony is heartbroken when the fighting is over and Bruce is gone and the Avengers have truly all but booted him from the squad. And JARVIS is essentially dead.

Tony has literally done the impossible and lost two best friends and a group of good friends in a time span of a few days.

Tony Stark is once again alone.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Age 42**

It doesn’t surprise Tony that he’s being reckless. Since the split with the Avengers, he’s been pretty solo. Capsicle calls, mostly to make sure Tony is staying out of trouble and not creating murderbots, which is _so_ five years ago.

Of course Tony is doing other questionable things like giving terrorist his Malibu address and honestly if Tony thought it couldn’t get any lonelier, he can’t help but practically cry at the thought of DUM-E, Butterfingers, and U also no longer existing.

Then there's Harley.

The kid that Tony secretly wants to pack up and take home with him because he just knows this is exactly how he acted when Maria could still hide him from the world. And it helps that he’s smart and Tony can’t stop wondering if perhaps he has the x-gene too.

But thinks it's not likely when the Kid actually causes him to get a panic attack by mentioning all the things he specifically told him _not_ to mention.

There's a moment that Tony thinks to take Harley with him but stops himself. His mom might be a drunk moron, but he’s all she’s got and where Tony’s going no child should. So he leaves him behind.

And leaves the Kid part of his soul too.

Of course Tony’s heroic rescue could have gone better but he can’t be blamed for what happens. _The guy literally breathed fire!_ And it makes sense that he’s all but saved by his suit.

Ever since putting those nanobots in his skin he’s been hyper aware of his suits, **_all_ ** of them.

So when he finally saves the day, or has Pepper save him, he’s almost pained by making them start to blow up. It's not until after when he turns to Pepper and sees her crying that he’s confused.

This was not how he envisioned this going.

She wants to break up!

“Oh Tony. Why would you do that! Destroy all your suits and hard work! You can’t stop being Ironman! And I’d never ask you to. That why I know this isn’t going to work out. I was too scared to admit it before, but ever since Ultron I’ve realized that while we make excellent friends we could have never been anything more”

Tony respects that, in a weird way he always knew it wouldn’t work. That Pepper was too much like his mother. And that at the end of the day he’d only end up pushing her away just like he’d done Maria.

However not being surprised by it doesn’t cause it to hurt any less. Like a soul pain in which his heart wants to shrivel up and die.

He still fixes Pepper though, works on the Extremis Virus, he can’t cure what has essentially altered her DNA but he can make all the nasty side effects disappear, so he does.

And then he decides to fix himself.

Tony just never knew how broken he really was.

With the shrapnel gone from his chest Tony wakes up to the clutter and chatter of _everything._ His mind seemingly moves a mile a minute and he can’t help but feel the noise of every piece of technology. He looks at the the lights above his head, just stares and watches as data filters across his mind.

His fingers - no his body seems to twitch with the want to move, to do, to _exist._

And Tony holds it all in and when he's finally alone. After he’s retrieved DUM-E, Butterfingers, and U from their watery grave. And after he’s set Harley up with his own lab and taken care of every bill his mother seems to have ignored since the beginning of time. After he’s reassured Steve that no he’s not gonna go off the deep end now that Pepper can’t _‘reign’_ him in.

Tony works.

And he begins to slowly kill himself. Passing out, not eating or drinking, just working.

Even Tony realizes that this is a problem. And once he’s run out of things to fix with DUM-E, Butterfingers, and U fully operational. And he’s ever created a JARVIS 2.0, though he can’t help but call this one Edwin and drops the British accent for an American one.

Tony once again sets out to fix himself.

This time he takes Extremis and alters it for his own needs. A way to control himself.

Tony only makes it worse and yet better at the same time.

More information and data floods his system his range expands further and there's just more to analyze. Yet Extremis makes it easier to sort through the junk and filter it out. To find a focus point and stay there.

He also realizes that he has increased other aspects of his mutation. Electricity seemingly dances across his skin comforting to him yet deadly to others. He can wirelessly communicate, easily taking a satellite or cell phone, or speaker system, or even computer and linking himself to where and who he wants to speak with. He can even see through cameras without actually having hacked them and he can hear Edwin's voice in his head. Feel almost tangible emotions from his other AI’s.

His reflexes are sharper and his strength slightly increased not to mention his regenerative powers. He had always been a fast healer but even this went above what he had before.

And when Tony invetiably builds another suit of armor, one better than anything he’s ever built. He can’t help but be fascinated watching as it absorbs into his skin and feel its hum beneath it.

Tony is better than he was before. Better than anyone ever thought he could possibly be. And when he smiles and turns to share his accomplishments, Tony realizes that for all he has created he is still alone.

That night as he goes to bed, in what feels like ages, he looks in the mirror to see endless Blues looking back at him.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Age 46**

Of course Tony should have known that learning control was so much harder than simply taking one injection.

 

 


	2. Civil War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Tony, I did some digging. You know how I am when it comes to the government. I just don’t trust them. But Steve was adamant about you facing your trial. He wants justice and of course he knows those people were terrorist but he thinks a trial will be good to sooth the nerves of the few who would like to see your head on a stake. He- Steve thinks you won’t be found guilty of fifteen counts of first degree murder, but I know better than to trust the system. The trial is going to be a mock one, just something to cover up what's really going on. They plan on finding you guilty no matter what. Then they want to lock you in the deepest darkest cell they can find until people forget about you before they decide to cut you open. Tony, you are now apart of a group of people who throughout history have been continuously experimented on, you’re not safe here”  
> If Tony did not know fear before, he does now. The very thing his mother wanted to protect him from was happening. The experimentation, that they would tear him apart and cut him open alive and awake just to see how fast he healed. They’d pump him full of drugs and have his brain lobotomized to see what made him tick. Tony wouldn’t be Tony anymore by the time they finished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or their backgrounds
> 
> Hello Everyone! Hopefully you liked the intro enough to stick around for the actual first chapter. Took me three days to write it and make sure it was right. I kept thinking to end it and have the next chapter start but then I realized that I really didn't want to leave you guys at too much of a cliffhanger and just kept writing as the scenes began to form.
> 
> So just a heads up if you noticed I mentioned that there will be X-Men in this fic. I'm taking it after the movie verse and having my X-Men the ones formed after the Apocalypse movie. Quicksilver is in this but he and the man from the Avengers Ultron movie will be two different people who just have similar powers. Especially considering they change his name in the X-Men movie to Peter, I think. This will have a similar scene from the Civil Wars Captain America movie but it's really completely different. So there really isn't a spoiler. 
> 
> ENJOY!  
> Leave Comments and/or Kudos!  
> Thank You!

_ “If you shut up the truth, and bury it underground, it will but grow” _

**Emile Zola**

 

“TONY LOOK AT THAT!!”

The excitement in the child's voice almost caused an embarrassed blush to come across Anthony’s tanned cheeks. When he had decided to invite Harley to the first ever Stark Industries Science Expo, an opportunity for underprivileged youth to showcase their talents and projects after being awarded a generous grant and resources by SI, he did not realize just how much fun he’d have himself. 

While the Expo was only open to the youth, the hundreds who had received the chance to display their projects after being chosen out of a tough pool of over four thousand applicants for their particular planning and originality, and their proud families. By tomorrow morning there would be a swarm of public people filling the convention center. 

Tony had set it up so that even those whose projects had seemingly failed or the hypothesis had been wrong would still get the chance to display their finding. For Tony, of all people, understood how much failure also helped in the development of things. 

“TONY, OH MY GOD, YOU’RE SO SLOW!!”

Harley yelled back at him from less than ten feet away. The child ran back to Tony who had stopped at a particular stand displaying a way to help the human mind experience a specific emotion through the use of wavelike frequencies. Ones that were easily pushed out by a small prototype device no bigger than a set of bluetooth headphones. 

“Come one Tony the most interesting things are this way”

Harley grips his right hand within his smaller ones and Tony lets himself be dragged along. They end up in the the part of the convention center that house the things involving video games, and other entertainment quality items. 

Tony is not surprised by this at all as Harley has become similar to an adopted child to Tony. He made sure that the kid was fully taken care of and that his mother received the help she needed to get back on her feet and while that was a slow process coming, Harley himself had flourished under Tony’s sure and delicate hands. 

The kid had been reluctant at first to gain any help, instead wanting to be prideful. But Tony had explained to him that this was what he owned Harley for keeping him alive and housing him. That getting help was something that even the greatest people needed from time to time and there was no shame in receiving it. It had been the first lesson that Tony had taught Harley. And the genius billionaire couldn’t help but smile and think Maria Stark would be proud of him. 

\----------------------

As the evening seemed to carry on many of the families filtered out to either celebrate with their children, as all expenses were covered by the company within select restaurants, hotels, and traveling agencies, or went back to get a good night's sleep for the following day.

Harley on the other hand seemed an endless ball of energy moving from one table to the next even though Tony was quite sure he had seen all of them at least once and the ones he liked at least twice. He asked questions to which Tony answered to the best of his abilities, while keeping it within the understanding of Harleys young genius intellect.

“Come on Harley let's go. I’ve got a lot of awards and patents to give out tomorrow”

SI was not only funding the projects but also helping the successful ones receive patents. And the ones that aligned with what SI was interested in would be propositioned to be created and the youth developer paid with a trust fund they’d be able to use for college and a very persuasive recommendation letter with Tony Stark's letterhead and signature to any university or program that they chose to apply.

“One day I’m gonna be here”

The confidence in Harley’s voice caused Tony to smile brightly because he had no doubt that this kid genius would one day surpass even Tony’s intellect. 

“Come one brat, let's go eat”

Tony brushed his hands over the kids hair before leading the way. 

But it is always Tony’s life that when things seem to be going well, that bad shit happen. He remembers when he was younger and once read the short story of a child who asked why bad things happened to good people, and why often times good people died young. He remembers the reply that the child received, ‘Imagine the whole world a garden and it's people flowers. Tell me child would you not pick the most beautiful flowers first?’

And so it is as Harley and Tony are heading to the exit in the back of the Convention Center, since paparazzi likely swarmed the front of it hoping to catch a picture of the now elusive billionaire, that a twist in his stomach causes him to stop and grab Harleys shoulder.

“Tony?”

Harley's voice is questioning, likely wondering why they’ve stopped in the back of the Center near the entertainment section. A few families linger about still looking at the displays happily, but Tony looks around and feels eyes on the back of his nape. 

‘Where’s all the security that was here just a minute ago?’

Tony’s thoughts are interrupted by a shout and he whips his head in the direction releasing Harley and getting ready for a fight. Yet it is only a child who has been accidentally knocked over by someone else.

“TONY!!”

Harleys yell, terror filled and blindingly clear, even among the buzz and chatter of this sections Technology, causes Tony to to turn back around. At some point someone has snatched Harley from his side and now holds him against their front. The male is muscled and dressed in all black from head to toe. He's in what appears to be a combat uniform and Tony wonders how he could of missed someone like this, someone who just didn’t fit in. 

‘Because you were distracted, thought you were safe with the measures you took’

The unknown male wears a ski mask the covers his face and points a gun to Harley's head resting the cold steel against the child's temple. Another scream to the side of him and a few more around him, gasps of surprise and fear fill the room.

Tony knows without looking that he’s surrounded and they likely have hostages. 

“Now Mr. Stark, what do we had here? A child? One you have sired likely?” 

The males is just buying time and space, backing up with Harley in tow. Around him he can feel the movement of electronics and knows that those with the male are likely herding the remaining families into a huddle. 

Tony slips his presence into the cameras around the room to gain a bird's eye view. He also has Edwin call the police and the Avengers to alert them of the situation. But Tony can tell from the maneuvering of the people, how the gunmen situate themselves among the people so that he has no clear shot at shooting them without casualties and the way they seem anxious, shaking with fingers on the trigger , that these guys are not looking to be here long. Neither the police or the Avengers will make it in time. Tony will have to do something. 

“Mr. Stark we don’t plan to draw this out. We’re not here for money, or tv time, or fame, or really anything other than to cause you trouble. We’re only a group of concerned terrorist who want to cause you pain and suffering. So I’ll be quick”

He cocks the gun and Tony thinks fast, the most terrifying killer is the one who wants nothing more than to cause as much damage as possible.

“WAIT, wait!”

The gunman cocks his head at this, acting interested in what Tony is saying but really the genius is trying to buy time to find a way to get out of this.

“Those families over there have nothing to do with me, let them go. Just take me instead, I won't fight I'll come peacefully-”

Harley opens his mouth to intervene, to probably tell Tony that, that's a  _ terrible  _ idea. But the older male beats him to it.

“Such a wonderful argument Stark, but you’re a superhero. The problem with your kind is that you care about all the pesky people. Care enough to count their deaths on you. But if you get on your knees and bow, _begging_ for their lives, I might be persuaded to let them go and if you’re a good boy I’ll even let your illegitimate child go”

Tony is disgusted. He has never backed down or bowed before anyone without being forced there by a swift kick to the back of his legs. And Harley seems completely against the very idea. His eyes scream that Tony had better not  _ think  _ about giving this guy what he wants.

And Stark men are proud creatures. By nature they are not easily cowed. And even now Tony is not cowering, he is pissed. Mad at the insanity of these masked men who seemingly want nothing and infuriated with himself for not being vigilant.

‘What the hell happened to security?!’

As he thinks this Edwin fills his head with the security camera of the back room, the one Harley and him would have gone through. Blood lines the walls of the room with a pile of bodies in the far corner, throats slit, eyes still open in shock, mouth hanging as if to scream. Dead.

Tony, no matter how used to death he has become, cannot help the turning in his gut. He now knows these men will surely kill.

Dropping to his knees Tony bends forward until his forehead touches the ground. 

“Please release these people, I beseech you”

Because no matter what position Tony Stark is in he could never get himself to spit out the word _beg_. 

“Hmmm, not bad at all. At the very least, I’m entertained now-”

All the gunmen begin cocking their guns and Tony finally takes notice of the sobs coming from the group. These are poor people, folks who are living in poverty and people Tony only wanted to help brighten their future. Instead he has put them in danger.

“PLEASE! PLEASE! I  **BEG** YOU!”

Tony’s voice has cracked slightly at the dreadful word. 

He cannot save Harley without putting the others in danger and cannot save the others without hitting and killing one of them and also losing Harley. 

Tony lifts his head from the floor and even before he can fully make eye contact with Harley a shot rings out.

Tony frantically thinks the families or Harley have been killed but when pain wells up in his shoulder he knows he’s the one that's been hit.

“I didn’t say you could get up”

The man's gun is smoking slightly and Harley is screaming his name.

Tony is overcome with anguish, but quickly the nerves dim as his body begins to heal the damage. Blood drips through Tony's fingers as he presses his left hand to his right shoulder. He is trying to cover the healing and move the shirt to hide the soon to be cleared flesh. 

But Harley doesn’t know this, doesn’t know that Tony can heal at an extreme rate, and seems to gain a form of confidence by the gun being moved from his head.

The kid slams his foot down on the male's shoes and jabs his elbow into his rib cage before ripping away from his grasp.

“NO HARLEY!”

Tony screams this loudly hoping to stop the stupid kid. The gunman is wearing steel toed boots and a gun vest. Neither of his attacks would be effective and if the kid has gotten away from the male's grasp then its because he wants him to do so. 

Tony rushes forward with enhanced reflexes hoping to stop what he thinks is about to happen. Hoping to just reach Harley. 

But for all his advancements Tony is not quicker than a bullet. 

Arms outstretched to Harley’s, Tony pains to move faster. Hears the cocking of a gun before it's fired. And he reaches Harley. 

But so does the bullet. 

Harley falls limply into his arms and Tony is surprised to feel the bullet pass through the boy's body and into his own. 

How thin and fragile Harley had been. 

The bullet slipping right through his chest. 

A sob escapes Tony as he falls to his knees taking the body with him. He presses his hands to the child's front trying to stop the blood from leaving. But it's beginning to pool beneath them. 

“Harley! Harley! Harley! HARLEY!”

Tony is yelling his name trying to get glassy eyes to focus on him.

“Hey, i-it’ll be okay. I-I’ll fix you r-right up. You’ll be r-right as r-rain brat” 

And Harley's eyes seem to look through him.

“Tony?”

The child pauses and coughs, blood coming up. 

“Tony, w-why is it suddenly so cold”

Tony is panicking. He knows he’s crying his eyes out, knows as Harleys blue eyes seem to dim more and more a piece of his heart and soul is dying. 

“H-Hey, hey don’t w-worry about the pain k-kid I’ll-”

“No, no. It... it's not painful. There's no pain. It's almost…”

Harley cuts Tony off but the child seems to lose his train of thought and his eyes drift. 

“I’m sleepy Tony. So sleepy”

Tony knows this is bad. Knows that not feeling pain is very bad because that means the body is either numbing it or the person's injury is so grievous that the brain has simply stopped processing the pain attached to it. He also knows that if Harley goes to sleep, he’ll likely never wake back up.

“HARLEY! No! DON’T SLEEP! OPEN YOUR EYES! PLEASE!”

But Harley no longer seems to be listening his eyes stare up at the ceiling as if entranced by the lights. And life sparks in his endless blue eyes one last time before he closes them. 

Dead. 

Harley is dead.

Tony brings the boy to his chest in a hug, gently. 

“ _ Harley _ ”

Tony sobs into the boy's body.

“Well that just too bad Mr. Stark. Seems your son wasn’t all that smart. Running in a straight line in front of someone with a gun!”

The male laughs and once again cocks his gun. 

“But the time for games are over Mr. Star- wait what the fuck is this!”

‘Harley’s dead, Harley’s dead. And it's  _ my  _ fault’

Tony thought spiraled into an empty void of darkness. His chest felt empty where his heart should be and he wonders numbly if Harley has taken it with him. 

And then this fucking  **bastard** had the nerve to call Harley  _ stupid _ !

“IT’S YOUR FAULT!”

Tony’s voice screeches over the speakers even though his mouth doesn’t move. The shrill sound of the loudspeaker causes everyone to cover their ears. 

Unknowingly to Tony electricity is spreading over him and the ground him. Lights flicker and electronics go crazy with energy shocks. 

“I’LL KILL YOU! I’LL KILL YOU”

Electricity seems to shot out in all directions hitting the gunmen, both the one before him and the ones in the group. It arches around the people finding its mark and hitting each man in the head. 

But even as they fall to the ground dead, body burned alive from the inside out, Tony cannot stop. Power surges and Tony’s eyes and body begin to glow. The genius billionaire cages his body around Harley holding him close. 

“Harley, Harley, Harley, Harley”

The power peaks and just before it seems to explode the loudspeaker says one last thing.

“ _Please don't die, don’t leave me alone_ ”

Tony knows only pain before everything goes dark.

* * *

 

Consciousness comes back to Tony in pieces, his foot itches and the lights are entirely too bright. His eyes hurt, and when he reaches up to rub them, he can’t.

‘What the hell?’

Blinking his eyes open Tony is met by a white room. He can feels the buzz of electricity around him. And can tell by the beeping on the heart monitor that he's in the hospital.  What he can’t seem to figure out is…

‘Are those rubber handcuffs?!’

Tony is immediately awake and nervous. Looking around he pulls on the cuffs but they mostly just stretch with him. Beside him the heart monitor is going crazy, beeping faster and faster as Tony wakes up more and more. 

‘Where am I? What happened? Where’s -’

Tony's thoughts seem to cut themselves off because memories soon begin to flood his mind.

‘Oh god! OH GOD! HARLEY!!’

His thoughts seems to scream and he pulls harder at the cuffs and hears them snap. A sting on his arm lets him know that the rubber has snapped back at him. But it's a fleeting observation as people suddenly flood the room.

“HOW IS HE AWAKE! THE MEDICINE-” 

The voice is cut off by surprised shouts as Tony attempts to get up.

“He’s out of the cuffs!”

People are around him trying to hold him down. White scrubs and covered faces. Hands in rubber gloves seem to cover him. And Tony who has never been claustrophobic in his life is suddenly suffocating.

“Get away! Get away from me!!”

Tony doesn’t understand what happens but suddenly the people are pushed back. The push isn’t very strong and a few are shaking their hands as if their numb, but Tony doesn’t stick around.

He’s out the bed and stumbling into the hallway before any of them recover.

Outside there are two armed men and Tony is suddenly reminded of what happened to him. He lashes out, his powers coming easy in his fear. 

Before he could only feel the chatter of technology before it grew into electricity and waves and frequencies. Now he looks at the gunmen in front of him and he sees they’re very bodies conducting electricity. Sees as their nervous system scatters through their body and a bright spot where Tony realizes their brain is. 

Suddenly their lights dim slightly and then their down. Unconscious bodies hit the ground, the guards are alive, but they won’t be awake for quite sometime. 

Tony takes off down the hallway. His mind is moving a mile a minute and if he was thinking straight he’d realize that he was safe, that those people holding him down had been doctors and nurses. 

But Tony’s mind is on survival and running off panicked instinct. Thoughts don’t seem to be developing properly. Too much data floods his mind, too much information on everything around him. Tony vaguely knows that his range has extended, that he hasn’t had the time to sit and think and find a way to control the input he’s getting. 

Tony makes it to the stairs and doesn’t realize he’s leaving a trail of burned out lights behind him. He takes each step three at a time and when he comes out on the last floor he sees the front of the hospital. Warmth and light seems to fall through the doors. 

Tony is out them before anyone in the lobby or the nurse receptionist can blink. 

But he decides as soon as he steps out that he was better off inside. 

Sunlight filters into his eyes and he squints, before he can even begin to get used to it a flash blinds him.

“MR.STARK!!”

A group of voices yell and suddenly questions are being plowed into his ear and more flashes seem to fill his retinas. Tony covers his face and takes a step back but the paparazzi will not be swayed, they seem to crowd into Tony the same way the doctors and nurses did. 

Once again his powers lash out. 

Shouts and gasps fill the air. And when Tony looks back up he sees that not only have the people been pushed back but all their electrical items are fried. 

Tony takes his chance and rushes past them, but as he finally gets through the crowd and into the parking lot he stops.

Captain America in full regalia stands before him, shield in hand. 

“Stark, I need you to return to your room”

Steve is not smiling, in fact he seems the farthest thing from amused by Tony's escape attempt. And by this time Tony’s mind seems to catch up with itself. 

“W-what… w-why…” 

Even aware as he is of Steve he still can’t bring himself to trust the male. He knows Captain America's fighting stance by now. 

“Why was I cuffed?”

The question leaves Tony’s mouth as he now takes notice of the rubber links still on his hands. He sees a blood spot on the back of his hand and the inside of his elbow. Likely where needles once sat before Tony’s daring escape.

“Stark… Tony I know it might not make sense right now but I’ll explain I promise. I just need you to to go back inside-”

Tony's thoughts seem to shift away still too much data and information filtering through it. And he can’t help but cut Steve off,

“Harley? Where is Harley?! What happened-”

Electricity seems to scatter across the ground. He has to know, has to find him and…

“Alive, Oh my god Tony! He’s alive, please, please calm down”

A new voice interrupts his train of thought. This is a voice he knows, one he trusts. 

Pepper steps from behind Steve’s imposing form. She clutches a Stark tablet to her chest and she looks pristine. Makeup and clothes perfect. But Tony knows her too well. Her eyes scream worry and her nervous system is influx, active and hyper aware. 

“Pepper?”

Tony is confused what is going on? Why is-

“Tony please, I’ll explain everything inside. But don’t worry Harley is alive”

Those last few words seem to take that fight right out of Tony and he drops to the ground on his knees. 

“ _ Alive _ ”

He whispers and happy tears swarm his eyes before once again Tony’s vision goes dark. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------

When Tony wakes up again he comes to all at once. He quickly realizes that he's being carried by strong arms and when he looks up he meets a red face and whirling eyes. 

“Vision?”

Confusion colors his voice and Vision smiles at him. 

Tony looks around and bristles at being carried around like a new bride. 

“You’ve only been unconscious for approximately fifteen minutes. The others were unable to lift you because your body seems to be giving off low level electricity. I am unaffected by it, so I am returning you to your room”

All Tony can think about is how much Vision sounds like JARVIS. His heart almost begins to ache again and even though it's been years he can’t help but think about his long dead best friend. 

“Tony!”

Pepper appears beside Vision who slows his pace so the woman in heels can keep up. Tony smiles thinly at this, because Vision has no idea that Pepper can  _ run  _ in heels. 

“Tony, I’m so glad you’re awake and okay!”

She is smiling and her eyes twinkle with unshed tears. 

“Sorry Pep, didn’t mean to worry ya”

Tony's voice wavers slightly like he’s going to cry himself but glances up at the ceiling allowing the data around him to flow and exit smoothly. He’s more in control now and he can feel the ball of pure energy inside him. Like an endless well just waiting to be tapped. 

“We're almost there sir”

Tony snaps back into focus to see that their on the hallway that he just left. But the ache in his chest seems to deepen.

“Call me Tony, please” ‘ _ Just never say sir with his voice’ _

The last part goes unspoken but the way Visions eyes seem to whirl about, silver and blue clashing together, Tony would believe that perhaps he did hear. 

“Anthony then” is his only reply 

And Tony just gives a pained groan at the use of his full name. Pepper who has listened in can’t help but giggle. The only person who called him by his full name was his mother when he was in trouble!

As they stroll up to the room Tony is struck with an almost irrational fear. All he can think of is those people in his face, masked and reaching toward him with gloved hands, holding him down.

Vision tightens his hold and Tony is brought back to the present only to see the two unconscious guards still there with Natasha leaning over them. 

As they get closer the woman looks up like she's just realizing their presence. 

Tony is not fooled.

“Tony. Vision. Pepper”

She greets them each with a nod of her head before bending down in front of the two men.

“These guys are trained to handle anything. Poison, torture, knockout cocktails, and electric occurrences”

She pauses and glances at Tony as her fingers take their pulse. 

“What exactly did you do?”

Tony is suddenly very nervous. Infact he’s more than that, he’s terrified. What if they know? Or if they find out? Tony’s already used his powers too much! Made everything so blatant.

“Anthony we are already aware that you are a Mutant. One whose mutation seems to primarily show itself through electricity and objects pertaining to that”

Visions words makes his throat close up on him, all he’s done is confirm his fears. Electricity archs off Tony and what would hurt a normal person is seemingly absorbed by Visions body. Tony even in his near panicking state finds this fascinating. 

“It's okay Tony, no one here is gonna hurt you”

Pepper says this with such confidence that Tony is almost instantly calmed. Pepper would never lie to him, at least not about something so important.

“I-I lowered their electrical currents”

His eyes narrow, trying to find the right words to fully explain. Natasha and Pepper both looked confused and Visions face is blank, eyes twisting. 

“Er, I don’t know… I can  **_see_ ** it”

This comment seems to catch Natashas attention and her eyebrows raise. 

“Tony, what can you see?”

She questions, but her face seems to twist in a way that means she thinks she knows what he's gonna say. 

“Their nervous system, the electricity that runs through it. I-I just put them asleep, just lowered that electricity a little bit to a state of unconsciousness. But I think I can reverse it”

Natasha stands and steps away from the men head tilting towards them as she watches Tony face.

“Ms. Natasha do you believe that's a good idea -”

Visions words are cut off by both men suddenly gasping awake. Some more electricity seems to dangerously shot off Tony but is almost immediately absorbed by Vision. It almost like the power is attracted to the male. 

“Black Widow! Mr. Stark zapped us!”

One of the soldiers is on his feet quickly, leaning heavily on the wall, eyes staring forward at Natasha. But the woman doesn’t spare him even a glance she hasn’t turned her gaze from Tony. 

Brown eyes meet Blue and Tony can’t help but wonder what she's looking for. Whatever it is she seems to find it and nods turning away. By this time the soldier realizes who's there and jumps. 

“Mr. Stark we are here to  _ protect  _ you! Not keep you contained!”

The guy seems thoroughly upset at being knocked out, his friend just stands there for the most part looking dazed still. 

Until now Tony had not noticed the Avengers symbol on their combat uniforms, having been so panicked earlier. He had seen guns and just decided to shoot and ask questions later. 

Now Tony almost feels bad about it. These are soldiers that work for and with the Avengers, recruited over the years with a strict screening process that Tony himself helped create. No one wanted another incident like SHIELD.

“Oh er, my bad?”

Tony isn’t quite sure how earnest he’s being about it but the soldier seems to take it and nods turning back to Natasha. 

“Where would you like us ma’am, now that he’s awake”

Black Widow seems to consider this and turns her head towards Tony again. She silently seems to analyze him and after a while nods coming to a decision. 

“You two are dismissed to regular duties again. Vision here will take over keeping track of Stark as he seems the only one unaffected by him. Go get checked out by a nurse real quick before you leave too”

At these words both soldiers give a salute and stumble away. Walking like people who have slept too long and woke up groggle and disoriented. 

“Come on Tony let's get you up to speed”

Natasha leads the way into the room after saying this and allows Pepper and Vision to enter before she closes the door. 

Vision lightly places Tony on the bed, tucking him in gently and Natasha hands him a key. Tony is confused about what it's for before one of his hands are grabbed and a cuff is released. Vision quickly does that same thing with the other hand. 

When Tony’s hands are free he takes a step back as Tony rubs his wrists. They're not sore but it's nice to have the weight of such things off of them. 

“When we got to you the threat was already neutralized. But unfortunately more than half the Convention Center was also caved in. Among the rubble we found you covering a child's body, Harley I presume, and several other people near you. Most were unconscious and some were in critical condition from falling debris. But it seems that the worst of the damage was found around all you guys instead of on you”

Tony has always liked Natasha, he’s never been one for spies, but the woman is straight to the point and quick both physically and mentally. It's never hurt that she's also easy on the eyes.

Though now Tony silently wishes she was a bit more sensitive with how she worded things. She made it sound so clinical, so routine, and her monotone voice only made it worse by making it sound like she was uninterested in what had happened. 

But Tony had been  _ there  _ had seen it all unfold. Still remembers the cold hard ground beneath his knees, the blood pouring from Harley’s body as he tried to stop it. 

“Tony, you’ve been asleep for four days”

Peppers voice seems to cut in and Tony just now realizes that he’s been gripping the covers in his hands and watches as blue lighting seems to dance across his fists.

“And while you were asleep we’ve put together the story of what happened from the people who were there. They said armed men came, threatened you but wanted nothing from you. We heard the whole story of how Harley was shot and you released blue lighting to kill the gunmen. Now, even before we knew what you were Tony, I found that to be a curious thing. It's not something you gain from taking Extremis but it is suspiciously like a  _ power.” _

Natasha has crossed her arms in front of her at this point and her scowl seems to deepen.

“Tony, why didn’t you tell us you were a Mutant?”

Pepper is the one to ask this and her voice seems to crack at the end. Tony realizes that his secret has hurt her. But he spent so long trying to bury it, trying to  _ not  _ be a mutant that he’d forgot what it's like to accept that part of him. In fact Tony knows that he’s never accepted that part of him, could never for fear of those he loves leaving him.

“While Mutants aren’t as taboo or outcasted as they were before we are all still works in progress. Mutant Rights and Protection has come a long way and it's now illegal to discriminate against them. You can even leave it off an application and resume and are not obligated to disclose your Mutant status or powers. But there will always be people that hate them. People that would kill and destroy anything Mutantkind has accomplished. But for you to think for even a second Tony that I of all people would not accept you for who you are-”

Pepper voice does break as her words leave her mouth and Tony knows she's crying. He hates it, hates being the one to make her cry.

His fingers grip the hospital sheet so tightly that they turn white at the force. 

“Its deeper than that Pep. It's not about me not trusting you. It’s the simple fact that it was a habit by the time I met you. I’ve lived my whole life knowing I’m _different_. My mother did what she could to protect me, I was born 1970. Mutants were literally killed and no one batted a damn eyelash at it. My mother taught me how to survive, how to hide in plain sight. By the time I met you, any of you” he glances around the room at the others “I was already used to hiding. Fear is an irrational emotion. I know you each would have taken me and my mutation without any problems, but I wasn’t used to that level of acceptance. Hell I don’t even accept it! How can I expect others to do so!”

Tony’s voice drips with venom at the last two sentences. His mother had taught him to hide and in doing so taught him that what he was, wasn’t right. While the woman would always be his mother and thus loved, he couldn’t help but doubt her method for keeping him safe. 

“Oh Tony!”

Pepper steps forward as if to hug him but it held back by Natasha who shakes her head. Tony is still slightly sparking with lighting and neither of them know if it could be deadly. Vision hands Pepper a tissue which she uses to clean her eyes hoping to stop her makeup from running.

“Eleven of the twenty-five people in the building with you are in critical condition, including Harley. But they’ve had the best doctors and nurses on them that are being paid for by SI. Pepper has made sure that every child has still had a patent received and the awards given out. Luckily the people that were there were just as heartbroken by the scene they saw because none of them are pressing charges. In fact they are practically singing your praises for all you tried to do for them. Even though eight of the eleven critical people are kids. But the state of New York and some less than mutant friendly politicians are calling for your head. Trying to use the destruction of the Center as evidence of Mutants being too strong. On top of that you took out more than half the power in New York”

Tony absorbs this information with a straight face. Never really looking Natasha in the eye but still listening intently.

“Only a little over half of New York Cities power surged? That not too bad-”

“Not New York City Tony, New York State. You took out more than half the power in the state for about 15 minutes. Thankfully hospitals in this state run on arc reactors courtesy of SI, so they weren’t affected. On top of that the Center that you collapsed is owned by SI. All in all, damage wise you didn’t do anything that a few SI dollars can’t fix. Even the critical care patients are expected to make a full recovery with SI footing the bill. Tony, Harley would have died without you. That spark you gave off and the low level electricity you emit kept that kids heart beating even with all the blood he was losing. You saved his life”

Natasha information seems to calm Tony like nothing else can. He relaxes slightly and finally the blue sparks seem to utterly disappear. Of course Natasha was also one to give the good news first and then smack you with the bad shit.

“They’re putting you on trial for the death of the terrorist. While superheros seem to possess the ability to kill when absolutely necessary and not be held fully accountable, they’re saying that you didn’t kill these men as  _ Ironman _ . That you did it as a  **Mutant** , and the last thing they need is other Mutants thinking it's okay to kill as long as it’s  _ ‘bad people’ _ ”

Nat pauses and uncrosses her arms, she reaches forward on the bed and grips Tony’s hand, squeezing before letting go, her eyes are kind and soft. Tony knows without her telling him out loud that her next words are gonna be very bad. Vision grabs his shoulder making it seem like a gesture of comfort but Tony knows he’s just getting ready to absorb any electricity that might form. 

“Tony, I did some digging. You know how I am when it comes to the government. I just don’t trust them. But Steve was adamant about you facing your trial. He wants justice and of course he knows those people were terrorist but he thinks a trial will be good to sooth the nerves of the few who would like to see your head on a stake. He- Steve thinks you won’t be found guilty of fifteen counts of first degree murder, but I know better than to trust the system. The trial is going to be a mock one, just something to cover up what's really going on. They plan on finding you guilty no matter what. Then they want to lock you in the deepest darkest cell they can find until people forget about you before they decide to cut you open. Tony, you are now apart of a group of people who throughout history have been continuously experimented on, you’re not safe here”

If Tony did not know fear before, he does now. The very thing his mother wanted to protect him from was happening. The experimentation, that they would tear him apart and cut him open alive and awake just to see how fast he healed. They’d pump him full of drugs and have his brain lobotomized to see what made him tick. Tony wouldn’t be Tony anymore by the time they finished. 

“Anthony you exhibit a very powerful mutation. They are considering you an Omega level and this not only puts you on the radar of corrupt scientist but also villainous mutants. On top of this you seem to have a secret enemy. The Kamikaze Gunmen, as has become their group name on the media, were sent by someone. They were a team created that have lost people to war from the use of your old weapons. A group with nothing to lose because your weapons took everything from them. They were not much different then Mr. and Ms. Maximoff from when they sided with Ultron”

Vision expresses his words with regret. He obviously does not like being the person to give bad news but seems to understand that this needs to be said. He’s already absorbs quite a lot of energy and Tony’s body only seems to grow more unstable with each word.

“DAMN IT TONY! If you can’t control yourself because of horrible news then how are you gonna be able to hide!”

Peppers voice and sob seems to break through Tony’s thoughts. And the male realizes that she's right.

He will have to hide, have to run away with his tail between his legs, until this blows over. He’ll be playing fugitive with the U.S. government, or part of it. And he’ll need absolute control if he's gonna do that.

Tony takes a breath and slows his thought process down. He closes his eyes and imagines his own nervous system, all the passageways and routes filled with power and electricity. He watches them decrease and lower. It not easy, the power fights against him wanting to react to his emotions, wanting protect him from what had caused him fear, and pain.

‘No’ Tony thinks, ‘There is nothing you can do by lashing out. Listen!’

He’s practically screaming at himself in his head and he’d think it was a crazy idea if it wasn’t for the fact that it worked.

His power recedes into his core reluctantly and while Tony’s control in tentative, at least it is there. 

“Oh!” Visions voice cuts through the hazy of Tony’s mind and he opens his eyes snapping to look at him. 

The android like male has stepped back and is clenching his fingers into a fist on the hand that was once touching Tony’s shoulder.

“It was as though you were trying to absorb energy out of me”

He explains this with a voice of fascination but when he reaches out to touch Tony's arm his face drops in disappointment.

“It is gone now though” suddenly a smile breaks across his face “But you are no longer giving off any electricity, low level or otherwise. I imagine this is not a natural state for your powers though. They have receded but they also seem to build at a tremendous rate. You will likely need to release them every now and again to stop yourself from exploding at containing so much energy” Vision says all this while gliding his hand up Tony’s arm and around to his nape. 

Had it been anyone else Tony would think it was sexual. But with Vision he can’t help but think he’s only checking him over for sparks. Either way it doesn’t stop the slight shiver from taking Tony's frame, honestly he can’t be blamed. He hasn’t had sex, actual sex as in with another person, in  **_years_ ** . He has long since given up his drunk playboy ways. 

“Your eyes”

Natasha is the one to say this and suddenly she's bending over his bed catching his undivided attention as Vision steps away. 

“They’re  _ brown” _

She sounds confused by this and Tony knows that she's already connecting the dots.

“So your eye color seems dependent on how much power you expend. But what exactly  _ are  _ your powers Tony” 

Her eyes narrow at him and she looks suspicious. Like she's not really expecting him to answer.

“I'm a Technomancer”

Tony says this with a straight face and Natasha returns it. She seems to see that she’ll not get a full answer and respects that. They all have their secrets, some are just bigger than others. 

“Okay, a Technomancer, I’ll take that” 

And as Natasha says those word a watery laugh fills the room. Three heads turn to look at Pepper who is now leaning against the wall and trying to hold in her laughs.

“I'm sorry, j-just..” she stutters and trails off. But Tony is silently thankful, her laughter has stopped her crying and brightened her face.

“Tony the Technomancer. Tony Technomancer, it just sounds like a really bad comic book hero or some cheesy pseudo name!” she gasps out and Natasha seems to catch on and think about it before smiling some. 

“Not much worse than Ironman though”

“Now that's just offensive”

Tony says this turning to Nat who doesn't even try to cover up her smile and laughing eyes. 

Vision watches all this calmly and his eyes seem to track all of them with fascination and interest. Tony can already guess what the male is thinking. How can they be joking at a time like this? Even after spending years among humans, Vision often finds himself bemused by them. Still he smiles, finding the laughter and amusement to almost be contagious.

Things calm down and before long it is replaced with an almost serene atmosphere. 

“You sit tight Stark, I’ll get you outta the country and help you cover your tracks. From there you’re on your own, but with your powers I’m sure you’ll be fine. When we’ve outed the politicians who are mutant phobic and want you experimented on you’ll be able to come back and track the person who sent the KamiKaze Gunmen, maybe you can even look into it while you're on the run”

Natasha face is suddenly all business again, but the mood is still lighter than it was before. Serious but not suffocating. 

Tony takes in what Black Widow says on the subject, only because he knows she’s a master spy. If anyone can show the world the corruption of a government than its her. So he just nods his head. 

He’ll listen to her and try not to do anything stupid. 

* * *

Tony of course said that he would  **_try_ ** but he didn’t realize that meant having to hold his temper too.

He also didn’t realize that  _ sitting tight _ included a visit from Captain fucking America!

“Stark.”

The other male greeted him with a slight nod of his head. Once again the boy scout was in full uniform.

‘Seriously does this guy ever take the thing off’

As if hearing Tony’s thoughts Steve pulled the mask from his face and runs a hand through his hair. 

“I find it a little worrying that you're still in the hospital Stark. Especially considering there's nothing wrong with you. You’re being idle, that's not your style. My Ma always said ‘Idle hands are the Devil's playthings’”

Steve says this as he walks up to the bed and takes the seat next to it. It's where Pepper had sat earlier while setting SI up for Tony to be missing for some time. They had even worked out a way for Tony to get money without drawing attention to his location or the bank account he drew from. Then Tony had used his powers to open up a temporary, yet nonexistent swiss account.

“I’m not gonna say you’re planning something Stark. But I know you hate hospitals. So for you to willingly stay in one so long, especially when you’ve been cleared. Its got me thinking maybe I need to be the one watching you and not Vision -”

Steve isn’t an idiot, Tony knows this. And he’s not exactly easy to take down. Even now as Tony is examining his nervous system he can tell that Steve isn’t a normal human. He’s brighter than more people, and Tony isn’t sure how long dimming his electricity would actually knock him out, in fact Tony isn’t even sure how much he should dim someone like Steve without possibly killing him. How fast would his healing factor take to kick in to fix a nervous system problem? And what does Steve’s sleeping state look like? Only reason the guards had worked out was because Tony had been running on instinct, he had wanted to knock them out, but not kill them. His powers had simply done the rest. 

All that is to say that if Steve were to take up watching him this would end badly for them. It was better that he was left in the dark. So Tony did the only thing he could to drive the other male off, he started an argument.

“Listen boy scout, I’m here because this is where it’s safe. Little birdy told me you want me caged up and honestly this is a lot better than that”

Tony says this making sure to cut Steve off in the middle of his rant. He’ll have to push all the males buttons for this to work.

“Stark I would never try to get you-!”

Once again Steve is easily cut off by Tony who places a bored look on his face and waves his hand in a nonchalant manner.

“Capsicle no need to explain yourself to me. I hurt a few people and suddenly I’m enemy number one, it’s what I’d expect from a military man stuck in time. Tell me where you’re from is this how they typically treat comrades?”

Tony can see his words hit a nerve, can imagine Steve's face turning red in anger. He not only showed indifference towards the lives of others, but also insulted Steve’s time period, and his morals towards comrades. Tony knows he’s walking on thin ice and only needs something to push Steve over the deep end. 

“Stark! Eleven people were  _ critically  _ injured, some of them  _ children _ , and you killed some-” Tony cuts in easily.

“Honestly Cap how can you even stand there and act righteous when I distinctly remember you advocating for you friend Bucky even after everyone he’s killed. You know we got a name for people like you. It’s called a  **hypocrite** ”

Tony puts as much venom as he can muster into that last word. He is mad at Steve in a way, but more pissed at how naive he has been. Natasha had warned Steve on what they planned to do to Tony and still he pushed for the trial to go through. 

Tony understands that Steve has always wanted to look at the good in people, that he didn’t understand how a few politicians could sway a trial that much, but Steve also came from a time period in which each individual citizen had more say so in the government. 

When the ‘ _ WE THE PEOPLE _ ’ actually stood for something and because of the War every person was needed and thus listened to. But Steve would have to realize that times have changed things and that the government was more corrupt and easily influenced by those in it. Hell Tony wouldn’t be surprised if the people who wanted to experiment on him were Hydra scientists. In fact he’s almost certain that it is them.

Which is why Tony  _ has  _ to do this, has to keep Steve in the dark on what he’s planning. He doesn’t hate Steve, doesn’t even dislike him having let go of the jealousy he once felt for the male that his father never stopped talking about, but he also knows him enough that Steve doesn’t break rules. He’ll bend them for friends, people like Bucky will always force Steve to bend the rules, but Tony isn’t so stupid as to think Steve will break them for someone like _Ironman_. 

And that is what Tony is doing, he’s breaking all the rules.

Steve is so pissed that he’s left speechless by it, the male has even risen from his chair and taken a half step forward as if he plans to punch Tony.

“What? Gonna hit me  _ Captain America.” _ Tony snorts and says the last part of his sentence sarcastically. “You aren’t even really a  _ Captain _ , you never made it that far. Hell you never even made it to lieutenant before they gave you the Howling Commandos. You just a foot soldier who got lucky with an experiment, that a thousand others could have survived. Like I said so long ago Rogers, everything special about you came out of a  _ bottle _ ”

And even to Tony these words sting, because he knows even after all this time, that he holds some animosity towards Steve. He got better at pushing it aside but now with only a few words years of friendship hangs in the balance. 

All the fight seems to leave Steve and he almost deflates. 

“You might be right Stark, but that won't change my mind. You're just itching for a fight is all”

Even in Tony’s ears Steve's words sound weak, like he’s hoping Tony is only looking for a fight but isn’t quite sure if that's really the case. 

“You’ll have your trial Stark and that's the end of it”

And with that Steve pulls his mask back on and heads to the door. 

“And Sta- Tony, whatever you do please don’t do anything stupid. I’ll be obligated to come after you if you do. And despite what you might think, you’re more than a comrade, you’re a friend” 

And then Steve is gone, door closed behind him and somber eyes only looking back once before they disappear.

Tony grips the sheets in his hands and his heart aches at what he will have to do.

“You're a friend too Steve”  _ ‘But that's exactly why I have to do this, so in the end you don’t blame yourself’ _

And with that thought in mind Tony takes a deep breath and releases it. His powers are agitated, but controlled, from the strong emotion of anguish that fills Tony at having to break Steve's heart like that. However sometimes things must be sacrificed in order to survive. 

It is like a piece of his soul has shriveled up and went with Steve.

Tony wonders how many more pieces he’ll have to give away before this is all over.

* * *

When Tony wakes up from the nap, five days after Natasha explanation and only three days after Steve's visit, he knows Vision is in the room. Can feel the other male in a way that he can’t feel humans. Like he’s a solid piece of hardwired technology and energy standing next to Tony.

Vision is so bright in Tony's eyes that he make others look dim by comparison. 

“It is time Anthony”

These words make Tony's heart beat faster and his fists sweat. He knows what the male means, knows that after all this is over Tony Stark will be a wanted man. People say that only the guilty flee, and he knows that the politicians will make him look bad on every media network known to man. 

Pure adrenaline pumps through Tony and yet he wills himself to breath, to calm down. He doesn’t need any sparks of electricity giving him away. For this mission he has to be calm or he’ll risk the safety of everyone who's helped him. 

When the anxiety has passed Tony unclenches his fists and opens his eyes looking Vision in the face.

“I’m ready”

He is lying, both of them know this, because no man could ever be ready to give up everything. 

“As ready as you’ll ever be Anthony”

And with that Vision steps up to the bed lying items on to it surface. Tony recognizes clothes and a razor along with some hair dye and long term case of contact lenses. 

“Now move quickly”

And with those words Tony grabs everything and heads to the connecting bathroom. The plan has been carefully laid with a contingency for every part of it, just in case.

As Tony shaves everything off his face he can’t help but mourn the lose of his goatee. Fresh faced Tony looks like he can’t be any older than twenty-five and for a second he remembers his conversation with JARVIS all those years ago. 

“Aging slowly, huh”

But he does not dwell on such thoughts. Quickly he applies the dye to his visible hair, including his eyebrows.

After 30 mins he gets in the shower to wash it out before quickly drying off and dressing. The clothes are second hand and in no way name brand. He has a sneaking suspicion that Edwin has helped them choose. Because these are clothes a Stark wouldn’t be caught dead in.

Glancing in the mirror he is met with dirty blond hair, while his own hair color has always been a dark brown almost black, this hair color seems to also fit his features. It helps that he looks so young with such a cleaned up face. Tony doesn’t sit long to glance over his appearance as he puts in the contacts, now looking at bright green eyes he is overcome with sorrow. 

For years his only connection to Maria Stark has been his endless blues, but now they are a liability. Tony knows that these contacts will still change colors to silver when his powers activate, but there will be no seeing his mother blues in the mirror any time soon. 

Tony Stark mourns the loss of this more than his goatee.

The person looking back at him looks nothing like Anthony Edward Stark, he is a stranger. Someone who is young and cocky and inexperienced. This is not Maria Stark's Son. 

And Tony wonders when he began to think that he himself had earned such a title anyways. 

‘It doesn’t matter, because I’m leaving it here’

And with that Tony exits the bathroom. While he’s been gone Vision has not been idle. On the bed lays a doll that looks almost exactly like Tony. 

It’ll buy them time for Tony to escape without the others getting suspicious. It’s just a doll, one that has a mechanism in it that makes the chest rise and fall as if breathing and has hair and skin that looks and feels real but isn’t.

It's still creepy though. He already isn’t Tony Stark anymore and this is becoming more and more like an out of body experience. 

“James Steele Martin, all the identification information is in your pocket. Driver's license, social security, passport, debit/credit card, along with a little over $4000 in cash, and other such items. I’ve also taken the time to create a full history for you. Ms. Natasha thought it best to make you, as she called it, ‘ _ a rebel _ ’. Born and raised on a farm in Iowa before a fire killed your whole family. Criminal record of being in and out of juvie and jail and yet smart enough never to get caught to do any long term time. It is… efficient, in an almost scary way that Ms. Natasha knows how to do all this”

Vision says all this standing next to the door and shifts minutely as he mentions Natasha abilities to create a fake identity in so little time.

“Don’t freak out too much Viz, it's literally what the woman does for a living”

He says this and heads toward the other male. Vision will leave him now that this portion of the plan has been completed. 

“Be careful… Tony”

Tony's eyes go wide and he turns to look at the other male in surprise for the use of his nickname, but he’s already gone. Tony looks where Vision once stood and can’t help the smile that crosses his face. He silently gives a little pray to a higher power that he doesn’t believe in, and opens the door.

In the hallway Tony has already programed the cameras to loop or turn from him so he won’t be seen leaving. With his powers it's almost too easy.

And as James Steele Martin steps from the hospital, no one bats an eyelash. Some paparazzi are still lingering hoping to catch a picture of Stark, but James fades through them like he isn’t even there. 

Tony heads to a motorcycle waiting for him in the exact spot Natasha said it would be, he fished the keys out of a pocket and revs the engine and places the helmet on his head. It feels good to sit on something with so much power, to feel the energy and technology run through his body and fingers.

Tony takes off out of the parking lot and heads for the private airport field that Natasha is suppose to meet him at. She mentioned asking for some help in case things went sideways, like she's fully expecting a fight. A Civil War amongst the Avengers over something like this. 

Tony drives faster pushing the bike forward with his powers and silently hopes that her suspicions are wrong as he weaves through traffic.

\------------------------------------------------

When he arrives at the private airport he makes his way to a hanger. It has a mini jet inside that's not labeled with either the Avengers or SI logo. And the private airport is typically used for military personnel. Tony knows the Rhodey is likely helping for them to have something like this in the works.

It warms his heart knowing his old college friend is still willing to break rules just for him.

But the smile that he has immediately drops when he hears the voice of someone he’s avoiding. 

“STARK! I KNOW YOU’RE HERE”

Steve’s voice rings out and Tony peeks through a hole in the hanger. He sees Steve walking in the middle of the port a few of the Avengers following him. 

‘Captain America, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Falcon, Black Panther, Winter Soldier, and Ant-Man’

He mentally names each of them and sends the names off to Edwin to tell Natasha. She was right there will be a fight, someone must have given them away. But who?

‘Sir it would seem no one is the  _ ‘snitch’  _ but more that Wanda noticed Vision acting weirdly and reported it to Steve. He then likely kept tabs on everyone including Rhodes who likely had to turn in some form of fake report to get use of this airfield. From there they must of set up a look out system for anyone entering, luckily you were wearing a helmet and they probably do not know what your new look is’

Edwin explained all this in a rational voice obviously having analyzed all the video feeds that he could at the Avengers HQ in upstate NY. Even though the facility was off the grid with Edwin aided by Tony’s power the AI could reach anywhere that had any form electricity at all. 

“Avengers! What are you doing here, this is private property!”

Rhodey’s voice cuts into Tony’s thoughts and he snapped his eyes back to the scene in front of him. War Machine, though nowadays most called him Iron Patriot, landed from the sky and took up a position making sure to place himself on the side away from Tony, obviously not wanting to seem like he was guarding a specific hanger. 

“Don’t play dumb Colonel, I know Stark’s here. I warned him that if he ran that I’d be forced to bring him back”

Steve's voice while somber is filled with pure determination. He will not be swayed to leave.

Winter Soldier and Black Panther are both slowly and stealthily sliding from the group obviously listening for anything to give Tony away. He can’t help but frown at this considering that Tony is the one the had Bucky exonerated and cleansed of brainwashing, something that had taken a better part of two years, and he is also the person who helped  T'Challa not only protect his country but get revenge on the person who had killed his father. 

‘Where the hell is the loyalty!?’

Tony’s thoughts are cut off by a Blue and Red blur suddenly kicking Black Panther back into the group and Natasha appearing in front of Bucky. 

It's quickly brought to Tony’s attention that the Blue and Red blur was Spiderman. And he can’t help but grin at the kid that he once made into a superhero. And boy had he grown, gone was the lanky, talkative, awkward teen who was just trying to help people and not sure how, and in his place stood a young adult, lean with muscle in a suit that Tony had created just for him out of a material even better than what Captain America used.

“You know Cap. I thought you were the fair type in things like this. Makes me glad I decided not to join the Avengers if all it means is that I’ll be subjected to you whims even if I disagree with them”

Peter's voice rings out to to the group as he lands on a helicopter not too far away. 

“If you noticed, your on the wrong side kid. More of us than you, that should tell you right there about what's right and fair”

Captain America takes a step toward Spiderman who crouches down obviously ready to fight.

“Dear Captain what is popular is not always right, you of all people should know that. Especially considering your stance on Mr. Barnes”

Vision floated from out of the air but he is not looking at Captain America when he says this. His eyes are locked with Wanda’s.

“You told them”

It is not a question that leaves Visions mouth, he knows Wanda is the only one who could have told, who would have noticed anything off about him enough to even raise a question about it. Visions eyes display betrayal and hurt and Tony remembers that the two had been getting close over the years to the point of almost dating. Now as Tony watches each Avenger get ready for a fight he can’t help but think that  **he** should be out there, knows that friendships and relationships are about to be broken over  _ him _ .

“You’d do all this for Stark! For a monster who left the Avengers years ago, who caused so much strife in the world. Sacrifice so much for a man who would never sacrifice anything in return to help you!”

Wanda's voice is furious and her tone vicious. She’s looking around her at every person who would stand with Stark, the once Merchant of Death, who had killed and hurt so many in his path.

“No”

Visions words ring out and Tony's throat almost closes up thinking that perhaps facing his lover is too much for Viz to take. That maybe he will turn on them now, when they need him the most.

“No, we do not do this for a monster named Stark, we do not do this for someone who in your young and naive mind is a person who indirectly killed others. We do this for a man who has spent his life making up for the mistakes of his younger self, a man who would and has laid down his life for others. For Ironman who feared himself for so long that he never told anyone about who or what he was. We do this for Anthony who used to wear a mask just to make it through the day but decided to take it off for the Avengers and yet we still left him by himself, again and again betraying the trust he gave us. He is not perfect, but no human is. We do this, stand with Tony, because he is our  **_friend_ ** !”

Visions words are said with such conviction that Tony has to pull his eyes away from the scene and literally cry. Can’t help but cover a sob with his hand because he realizes that they have seen him, have looked into Tony’s eyes and looked past his mask to  **_see him._ **

The others with Vision nod their heads and even Steve looks so utterly broken at this. Like he wants to call off this search and this fight and just let Tony go. But he can’t, he knows it’s too late for that and even though he knows after hearing that speech none of them will back down he can’t help but ask.

“Those are some pretty words Vision, but you are still out numbered and should Tony get away, each of you will be considered enemies. Turning him in now means I won't be forced to take extreme action and strip you of your Avenger status. Please don’t make me do this”

Steve’s voice is pleading, asking them to see reason so that this will be swift and painless for everyone involved. 

Tony, finally able to get his tears under control, turns back to the scene peeking through the hole in the hanger. 

“Sorry Cap, but we can’t do that...” Natasha says this as she throws a punch at Bucky who catches it with ease in his metal arm. A serious look on both their faces, as once again they cross blades with each other. 

“...But consider this our resignation!”

As she yells this her SpiderBites suddenly seem to glow bright before a surge of energy seems to zap right up Bucky’s metal arm and sending him flying back and right on Ant-Man. Tony recognizes the new schematics he had made for Natasha but had never got to implant because of the incident. The electric shock was strong enough to leave electronics fried for at least twelve hours. He knows Edwin had likely put them through production for Natasha in preparation for this fight and now knows that the others are likely equally equipped with new technology. He also knows he helped make Bucky’s arm and that the limpness he’s experiencing in it will only last six hours rather than twelve.

Winter Soldier jumps back to his feet a growl coming from his lips as he glances from his inactive arm to Natasha.

“You’ll regret that”

He pushes out through clenched teeth, eyes dark with intent. Even after everything had been programed out of Bucky it had still taken time to simmer down his reflexes. The male had over twenty years of muscle memory to go for the kill and let's not even talk about how after every brainwash sequence had been collapsed he had gained all his lost memories and missions, the male had really taken four years just to fully get back on his feet. 

“No don’t think I will Winter Soldier. Oh and Captain America, hope you don’t mind but I’ve invited some friends”

As Natasha spoke suddenly lightning flashed across the sky and arched down.

“Thor will only agree not to get involved in such mortal matters!”

Steve yells this at Natasha frowning, because while the Thunder God was an Avenger he typically only intervened when there was an alien like issue. 

“Uh! Captain, that's not Thor!”

Scott Lang, Ant-Man, pointed to the sky and with a vicious slam of thunder and lighting a beautiful woman was illuminated. 

She had long white silver hair and an all black outfit with an ‘X’ across her chest. Her eyes glowed with power and Tony watched with awe as her body seemed to be made out of pure energy. So similar to Vision yet also different. Untamed and wild something not to be controlled or underestimated. More men and a woman stepped out from inside a hanger, they look young and Tony is almost confused by this, who are-

And all at once Tony  **_knows._ **

X-Men.

They were new, had saved the world from some guy calling himself Apocalypse no more than two years ago. The Avengers had all been scattered at the time taking care of smaller individual threats that had popped up likely because of Apocalypse. 

‘Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm, Quicksilver and…’

Tony’s thoughts trail off ‘Wasn’t there another one?’

But he’s brought back to the present by Steve. 

“Black Widow not only did you include kids in this fight, but you thought it a good idea to welcome the X-Men into a personal Avengers matter?!”

Captain America sounded scandalized, to think outsiders would be privy to in house fighting!

“Sorry Captain America but when a Mutant is involved it becomes our problem too. Especially a Mutant that might be experimented on. Mutant and Proud might be our civil rights movement motto but we also understand that many fear showing their powers and Anthony Stark was one of those people and we will not stand back and let the very thing he likely feared come true”

Jean Grey speaks like a woman who has seen much and not the inexperienced teenager that she looks like.

Anger flashes across Steve's face, Tony knows the situation annoys him, he has lost the upper hand in this fight. Seven of the Captains men against Eight others, Tony knows that Steve is silently hoping that because the Avengers don’t work with the X-Men this will cause a rift in the fighting abilities. But the genius billionaire understands that the people who are with him from the Avengers are masters at adapting to others fighting styles. 

And so all hell breaks loose as Winter Soldier suddenly charges Black Widow a fist heading straight for her face. 

The battle is a craziness of flying fist and objects. When suddenly Ant-Man grows huge and Jean Grey throws a  _ whole plane _ at Captain America with her  _ mind.  _ Storm literally starts throwing bolts of lighting at the oversized Ant-Man who is getting wrapped up in trying to step on Quicksilver who has all but caused Wanda to freeze in shock. To see someone with a power so similar to her brothers must be frightening. Yet Tony knows that Quicksilver is actually faster than her brother, a mutation that he’s been able to develop since he was born versus’ gaining it later on in life, too a body that was never meant to go such speeds, from an alien staff.

When Wanda literally tries to get into Jean Grey's head with her powers Tony is shocked to see the girl witch suddenly scream and pull at her own hair while Jean lifts her hands and throws her back. Hawkeye is there to catch her and shoot an arrow at the telepath only to have it completely destroyed by Cyclops.

But it’s enough to break whatever connection Wanda has to the other girl and when she opens her eyes she stares at the mutant in utter fear, face going white. 

Spiderman swings by and takes Hawkeye’s bow before reaching out a web and grabbing Captain America's shield out of the air before it can hit Storm who is still floating above them throwing down lighting to any enemies who stand still a bit too long. She is fierce enough to make even Thor proud. 

Wanda is on her feet again and attacking Vision who for the most part has been taking on Black Panther and  _ winning _ . Always phasing out allowing claws to go through him when the other male swipes. 

Winter Soldier and Black Widow seems to be in their own world trading blow for blow and exchanging words in Russian.

Spiderman seems pretty good at playing keep away with both the Captain’s Shield and Hawkeye's Bow up until Black Panthers claws cut through the webbing on both and zones in on Spiderman. 

There's a spark and suddenly Tony’s eyes are on Viz and Witch. Wanda seems to be speaking to him, as if trying to get him to see reason. Vision for his part doesn’t even look close to being swayed. He fights like a man who isn’t looking his ex-lover in the eye while he beams her into oblivion. 

On a particularly loud smack of thunder and lighting almost deafening, Tony suddenly smells sulfur and senses a wave of energy behind him. Turning quickly the genius billionaire meets bright yellow eyes and dark blue skin, he is reminded of his mother's eyes instantly.

“You are Tony ja?” the boys accent is thick and Tony thinks of Germany just from the sound alone. 

Tony knows who this is, the other X-Men that had been missing earlier and he realizes that this is one of Natasha's many contingency plans. If they can’t fly out then Tony will have to teleport. 

“Right, uh, yes I’m Tony” he nods his head and Tony tries to remember the others codename.

“Good, vhat Black Vidow has planned is this,” he pauses and points to the Jet holding in his other hand what looks like a detonator. “Ve teleport out of ‘ere and push this button to turn this jet on. It vill lead them to think you’re heading to California. I vill take you to JFK International Airport here in NY and you vill take any plane out of the country to vherever you vant”

Grinning the blue skinned male flashes sharp teeth at Tony and the genius almost has the sudden unexplainable urge to cuddle the other male like one would a furry animal. It's disturbing.

“But the others-”

“Vill be taking the Blackbird out of here. X-Men will shelter you Ex-Avenger friends. Do not worry Tony, they vill be fine and ve vill help find a vay to clear your name”

Tony is relieved to hear this, that he won’t be leaving his friends to a fate of being locked up. And Steve will likely not go after them for fear of angering Mutantkind. 

“Come Tony”

The blue skinned teleporter holds out his hand and Tony turns and looks out the hole one last time before nodding his head

“Goodbye” he whispers before turning and grabbing the hand offered.

In a poof and flash of light, at least for Tony who could literally see the energy that the other male released, they were suddenly in an alleyway in busy NYC with the airport a short walk away. For a moment Tony is slightly dazed and disorientated by the quickness of teleporting and shakes his head before watching the male click the button. Tony knows the others will guard the jet with their life and silently prays that no one, even those who would drag him to death, will not be fatal injured. 

“I must go, you vill be safe from ‘ere Mr.Stark”

But before the male can begin to gather energy to disappear Tony grabs his hand to get his attention. 

“Wait! Thank you so much! And tell that to the others for me. I’ll miss them! Also what it your name?”

Tony pleads to know the name that seems to be on the tip of his tongue but just can’t seem to get out. 

“I am Nightcrawler. But my real name is Kurt Vagner. OH! And before I forget the Professor said to give this to you and that you should only read it once aboard the plane and in the air”

Tony makes a face at Kurt's name, it just seemed weird to him. Nightcrawler had been what he knew the teleporter by, though he knew all the real names of the X-Men, but Kurt Wagner just never seemed to  _ fit. _

Now as he holds out an envelope to Tony using a…  _ tail _ ?! Tony can’t help but laugh. 

“Thanks” he says taking the offered letter and reads what the front says in carefully written cursive that looks very familiar.

**ANTHONY EDWARD STARK**

Tony is confused by this, the last person to use his full name was his mother. Flipping the envelope over he is bewildered by the wax seal that holds it closed. 

“What-”

But his question is cut off as Nightcrawler teleports away with a soft crack and the smell of sulfur seems to fill the air. Tony coughs and waves his hand in his face to get rid of the smoke. Looking at where the male once stood Tony sees a medium suitcase and supposes that it must be for him. 

While he is curious about the letter and how the hell someone got their hands on the Stark Seal he is also aware that he isn’t safe here. So Tony takes off to the airport blending in with the crowd of busy New Yorkers, invincible for the first time in his life. 

* * *

And when Tony finally sits on a plane heading to Beijing, China in first class, because he had enough for the ticket and wanted all the room he could get just in case this letter turned out to be what he feared it was, he finally pulls the envelope from his pocket.

Reverently, he runs his thumb over the front across his name and feels his heart ache. This is his mothers hand writing, he’d know it anywhere.

Turning it over, he looks at the Stark Seal and finally understands how it got there. The only Seal that was ever made for the Starks always sat in his father's office at the Stark Mansion in the desk, first drawer on the right. 

Tony would know because that is where he left it after his parents had died. 

Breathing deeply Tony closes his eyes and imagines his mother full of life and smiling, always smiling even when Tony had disappointed her. 

Trying to make sure his powers were buried deep Tony opens his eyes and breaks the Seal on the letter.

The first line easily makes Tony Stark sob.


	3. The Love Of A Mother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A letter from Maria Stark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!  
> So short chapter this time. I thought about just combining the next chapter and Maria's letter together to make one chapter but then I realize that I preferred it this way. There is something sacred, to me, about a dead mother writing her child a letter that deserves to be distinct and have its own chapter. In simple terms, I'm a sappy person. 
> 
> I also realized that not much is known about Maria Stark and where she's from and such, so I used that to my advantage in this fanfic. I will admit some characters who already have pretty set backgrounds(like in comics or movies) will be altered slightly for this fanfic, not anything to change personality drastically(though that is only for some cases) but to simply incorporate the background I plan to give Maria. 
> 
> I also find it important to mention (as my friend who is my kind of Beta Reader, but she really just likes getting the chapters early and doesn't really help lol, asked about this) that I know the X-Men Apocalypse movie took place in what appeared to be the 90's(maybe??). But to clarify I'm bringing the X-Men into the Avenger Universe, this means the X-Men are still young and not their older(and honestly more jaded and bitter) counterparts. The X-Men Apocalypse thing would have happened in 2014(as I mentioned it was 2 years ago and it is 2016 in my Avengers Fanfic, though I never felt the need to just come right out and say it) thus putting the X-Men in their early twenties(I imagine the youngest being at the very least 18-19 in the movie). I hope that might have cleared up any confusion if there was any. If you have a question just let me know in the comments. I just want to make sure everything is coherent.
> 
> I have also included a family tree I created at the end because I'm a visual person and it might help some people understand Maria's family and the different ancestors a bit more. I'm not going very far back honestly but it's just to help.
> 
> Now ENJOY!  
> Leave Kudos and/or Comments!  
> THANK YOU

_ “The natural state of motherhood is unselfishness. When you become a mother, you are no longer the center of your own universe. You relinquish that position to your children.”  _

**Jessica Lange**

 

Dear Anthony,

(I Love You)

 

If you are reading this, then I am dead. And I must apologize for leaving you alone to deal with such a burden by yourself. 

I think we both have grown tired of this game of silence. Have played and lost terribly. You are a Mutant as you no doubt know, because on some level you always knew, even when you were younger and drived me up the wall with you incessant need to take the house apart to see how it worked. 

I remember those younger years fondly because life was so simple then. Only thing you needed was Edwin and I to keep you company, the world was a scary place that you had no interest in and that suited my needs perfectly.

I wanted to keep you safe, never doubt that Anthony.

I might have done horrible things, things that you don’t even know about but here is where I will tell you. Here is where I will announce the sins that I have sown into you.

Do not begrudge your father for the many times you fought. I was often the instigator of such things, pleading with Howard to do something. I think secretly I was happy that you did not get along. I loved your father dearly but you were  _ mines _ . Born of me and by me, and I didn’t want Howard taking you away and turning you into a smaller version of himself. I was the reason that he wouldn’t allow you to leave for college at first, for I feared that if I did you’d never come back. That someone would find out and steal you from me. That I’d be forced to kill to get you back, because for you Anthony, for my child, I’d do anything.

I am also the one who’d hide some of your electronic toys when you were younger. It vexed you endlessly to think Edwin had done it and I found myself fascinated to see how easily you could find even the most obscure items. This, I admit, was a secret pleasure of mines that went on until you left for college. When you came back you did not seem interested in finding what was often lost and simply went to buy a new one. Secretly this pained me.

And I apologize because I never taught you the most important lesson that any child should learn: To Never Fear Being Yourself.

Sometimes when you looked at me I knew you felt that I betrayed you in someway, that I never amounted to the mother that I should have been. 

You were right, I should have done more to make you realize that being a Mutant doesn’t define you. That it has never defined you: who you are or who you will be. Having powers might make you different and unique but it doesn’t make you a freak or make you evil. 

If I never told you this, then let me write it so that you might know.

Anthony Edward Stark you are  **_MY_ ** son. A title that was earned the day you came into this world and one that will exist long after you have left it. And because of that, no matter what you do I will always be proud of you. And I want you be proud to call me your mother.

And that is why I must tell you my family history, the one I always brushed off and the questions I left unanswered. Because now that you have received this letter they will take notice and, in doing so, will reach out to you. And they may do horrible things, but do not begrudge them, they know no other way. You will have to show them one. 

My maiden name is Wolff, which in American context will never mean anything. But my grandfather, your great grandfather was a Jewish man from Germany. Adalwolf and Adolpha both lived long enough to see the atrocities of the Holocaust. Your great grandparents were never captured, simply killed in cold blood with their two sons hiding below floor boards, helplessly watching. I am old enough to remember such things and will not share the horrors that I faced. 

But my uncle Godfrey, your granduncle, could not let their deaths go. He became a Nazi Hunter and a very good one at that. He became so good in fact that he organized pockets of resistance against Nazi rule. He was praised as a hero and legend by many Jewish families who he helped smuggle out of Germany. Uncle Godfrey was never a religious man(he had to issue renouncing his Jewish faith just to blend in) and from his mother's side of the family, Adolpha, he had the looks of a ‘ _ true german _ ’. Blond haired and blue eyed. My father was not so lucky, not only were my parents, you grandfather Edel and grandmother Ava, religious but they both had dark coloring even in skin tone, always tanning a bit too much. 

Uncle Godfrey was furious when he found out that Edel, my father, wanted to leave Germany. Family was everything back then, truly the only people you could trust. I will not lie, he wanted me to be his next in line, should he die, to take over his Nazi Hunting Crusade. I often played spy for him, nothing more than a pretty girl. I have killed people Anthony and I am not sorry, because the people I killed were disgusting men. They thought me nothing more than a cheap token and ornament, pretty and subservient, they did not know I was deadly too. And my father wanted to take that from my Uncle. But Edel feared for the safety of his wife and children. Only I had gained my Uncles looks just the same as you inherited his blue eye(though perhaps your mutation also plays a part in that), it is the reason I could play assassin so well for him. 

When my father saw that he wouldn't gain any help from Godfrey to help in our escape he decided to do it alone. My father was killed distracting Nazi’s so that my mother, brother, and I could get away. And when we finally crossed the Ocean and made it to America we fully grieved what we had lost, but knew we were lucky. 

I joined SHIELD, when it was in it infancy, as a receptionist and secretary. Later on I met your father and  _ hated  _ him! Such a cocky man he was. And I was forced to work with him on many occasions as my hands were, and I quote in his words, “ _ the perfect size to fit into small places and steady enough to defuse a bomb _ ”. Even then I think he thought he was  _ charming _ , really he just kept me from doing my other work(though I will admit I found him quite dashing and his intellect admirable, I would never tell him). 

And then as the war ended my family was faced with a choice to return to Germany. My brother was completely with it, having been in contact with my Uncle Godfrey, he knew that we would be welcomed back with open arms. And my Uncle with all the power he had accumulated, in the simplest terms, started a Gang/Mafia out of those in the Jewish community willing to hunt fleeing or hiding Nazi’s after the war. The hate was easily cultivated by my Uncle, killing those who had killed us.

It was a terrifying thought to have to return to a life of killing after living so long in semi-peace in America and establishing so much here.  But he would not take no for an answer and when my Uncle Godfrey made an appearance ready to drag us all back kicking and screaming, to really drag  **_me_ ** back to take command of his Gang in his old age, Howard was the one who saved us. Or at least saved my mother and I. Howard involved SHIELD and had them banish my Uncle and traitorous brother, Derek, out of the country. I owed your father my life and from there, he won my heart (I’ll admit he was a  _ little  _ charming).

My mother died some time after Howard and I married. And when you were born my brother, now the leader after Uncle's death, appeared again. He would need an Heir for his Wolff Gang as he was impotent, and when I told him of your powers he was furious at me for thinking to hide something so important. In the years that my brother was away he had grown up. Had matured and as Nazi Hunting came to an end in the Gang he had turned his efforts to helping another group of people viciously persecuted, Mutants. He told me the Gang was completely restructured but I still remembered my Uncle Godfrey’s crazed eyes, I did not and do not believe him.

He then had the audacity to question my skills in raising you, even though you were only six at the time and at most you dismantled household items, it simply wasn’t a big deal to me that you be taught anything on mutants. Especially if your powers didn’t grow and could be passed off as you being a genius in creating things. He disagreed, said that they would get too strong to simply hide away someday. I told him that we would cross that bridge when it arose. 

He did not care for what he thought was a nonchalant attitude for something that, to him, was monumental. He claimed he wanted you to be safe should the day arise that you’d be pushed into the world of Mutant prejudice. 

In the end we came to an agreement, should you ever be outed as a Mutant he would be allowed to approach you to offer you the chance to lead Wolff Gang. A position that would offer you a level of protection. I always feared you being found out, and as your powers did in fact grow, as my brother predicted, so did my fears. 

If you’re reading this letter than Derek, my brother, is only biding his time. He will come for you Anthony and you  _ must  _ be ready.

I must also tell you that I have done much more horrible things to protect you, things I’m not proud of as I’ve mentioned, I've made many sacrifices for your survival. 

This secret I must tell you is the one, I believe, that will also make you stop loving me and I know you will think that nothing in this world could make that happen.

Arno Isaac Stark.

The name will not sound familiar to you because for all intents and purposes this child does not exist, even my brother didn’t know of him, at least not when he first came looking for an Heir(I imagine it has been many years since my death and my brother was always resourceful and nosy). 

Forgive me Anthony for what I have done, but that is the name of your twin brother.

He was born with an external mutation that made him look like a demon, tail and all. But he had the most beautiful brown skin, almost so dark it could mistaken for black and eyes so bright you’d think they were molten gold. Such fuzzy skin in certain places and ears pointed like an elf. 

I instantly loved him with all my heart. I loved both of you so much. But I knew what would happen if word got out. That they would hunt us down even with our Stark name and take you from me. The thought of losing both of you was too much for me to bare. And I would not give him to my brother who at this time had not spoken to me in years, as this was long before we had made any deal over you.

So I made Howard take Arno and secret him away. Your brother was given to a couple in Germany who were unable to have children of their own. Distant relatives on my side who had stayed in Germany even after what happened during the Holocaust when we fled to America. The relatives were from Aldolpha’s, your great grandmother’s side, they were not Wolff and had no connection to my brother, Howard made sure. 

I thought it the perfect location for Arno, he’d grow up loved. Cherished as the child my cousins always wanted but could never have and they did love him. On sight they found his unique form to be just as beautiful as I did. Their names were Ada and Edmund Wainwright. 

They lived in a very farm like area of Germany. Freienwill, Germany near the rather large town of Flensburg. 

Anthony the reason I am telling you this is because while you were at college I lost contact with my cousins. I do not know what became of them or the child, but I beg of you to find out, I feared at one point that Derek had found him and stolen him. But even in old age my brother was a boastful man, he would have made sure I knew he had my child. If he knew of Arno, he did not touch him, perhaps because he believed he already had you. 

You are fraternal twins so you won’t look the same and you need not worry about someone in the birthing room having gave anything up, the midwife who helped in the delivery was paid off and also died many years ago when you be both thirteen.

While you owe me nothing Anthony, as I have taken liberties that no mother should, I will never forget the day I sent your brother away and you looked at me, even as newborn, so utterly betrayed. 

I am so sorry for the pain and suffering I brought upon you for so long in an act to protect you. But really I was just scared and allowed that fear to cloud my judgement. I hope that you will not do the same.

Find Arno and tell him, that like you, I love him. He never got to hear those words from his real mother and I want him to at least hear them from his brother. 

 

Always with Love Forever More,

Maria Ava Stark

Your Mother

 

P.S. The letters attached to this one are old ones written throughout the years as you grew. I found myself writing a new one every year for you as my list of secrets expanded. 

P.P.S. The person who gave you this letter can be trusted absolutely, he has NOT been made aware of the secrets regarding Arno, but is a family friend who is well aware of Derek Wolff, my brother. Charles Xavier can certainly be trusted to work in your best interest. As his father, Brian Xavier, always did for me.


	4. Homecoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There had been fifteen KamiKaze Gunmen, and crazily enough fourteen of them had been Chinese citizens. It's one of the reasons Tony had originally chose china as his destination. These men had no green cards and had likely been smuggled into America. Natasha and Vision had already told him that someone was gunning for his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First thing is, sorry for how slow and late this chapter is. I live in FL and visited Tallahassee before somehow having to go to Atlanta, GA and then to Richmond, VA before finally ending up in Washington DC. Not sure how it happened but it was a very long few days. And it was fun.
> 
> Also the beginning of this chapter is inspired by the poet Prince Ea, his poem 'Dear Future Generations: Sorry' is amazing and a must watch so check it out. I also got some inspiration from a trip to China that I actually took. China is beautiful and devastating at the same time. The opening of this chapter reflects some of my feels on the matter. 
> 
> Anyways Enjoy!  
> Leave a Comment if ya got a question! I'm always happy to answer!

_ “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out”  _

**Walter Winchell**

 

Three months into his self imposed exile from civilization Tony is almost beginning to regret it. When he left Beijing, deciding that it was best he didn’t stay near any major cities should people come looking for him, and decided to backpack across China he admits to not having fully thought it through.

All those movies where the main character finds out this enlightening information then goes on a trip to some remote place in the middle of no fucking where, yeah those movies where bullshit. Hollywood should reimburse every sad sap who believed that shit, including Tony fucking Stark. 

At this point no one would even believe him if he said he was Tony Stark though. His fresh face was covered in a light brown lumberjack beard, his hair had grown out to his shoulders with the tips a dirty blond yet his roots a reddish brown, having lightened from its darker tones because of the constant sun. And his skin now sported a bronze tan making him look like one of those surfing hippies from California.

Tony seemed to always be in a constant state of sweating never fully stripping the fine thin layer that coated his body and honestly it might be the very thing that kept him cool because every time the wind blew it was like some cosmic entity had decided to take mercy on him and not let him die of heat stroke.

On top of that Tony was forced to use Edwin as his navigator with the AI tracking a laptop Tony had bought before he left Beijing. 

Tony had spent 3 months doing absolutely nothing but seeing all that China had to offer. Not that he felt more comfortable in his skin or any less likely to break down in sobs just thinking about his mother. 

But at least he had seen beauty and destruction in equal measures while trekking the chinese equivalent of the countryside. To see what was still left untouched in the wake of globalization and yet also see what beauty had been destroyed, being shown pictures of what once was and would never be again. 

If nothing else it had strengthened Tony’s humanitarian and environmental protection spirit. Hell Tony remembered getting off the plane in Beijing and being handed a pollution mask because the smog was heavy that day. 

Tony wanted to make a difference, wanted to clean the world up from the mess that people had made it. He found it so ironic that both Mutants and Humans had superhero protectors, X-Men and the Avengers. Yet he now knew that the true superheroes were the common powerless men and women and mutants, who realized the importance of the world itself. 

Earth was the only home for humanity and at the end of the day we need not look to the sky for our destruction but only to each other. Because no matter what you're fighting for, any form of equality or justice at all, it wouldn’t matter in the least. Because if we didn’t all work together to save the Earth, and the environment, we would be equally extinct. 

‘Huh, maybe I did learn something. I’m more like my mother than I ever gave myself credit for’

Tony thinks this while thoughts of his own mother's humanitarian ideals and projects surface. His father had always looked to protect the people of the world through weapons, yet his mother had always wanted to protect the Earth itself. 

She had seen first hand what weapons and the minds of men could bring upon people, had killed people in cold blood allowing herself to be a weapon. And yet at the end of the day when she had the money and influence to make a difference, she turned her back on the chance to join such a thing, turned her back on the opportunity to help his father make the world safe one weapon at a time and instead decided to make the earth safe one full stomach and kind gesture at a time.

His father had, in a way, chosen the easy path, to look at men and see the evil and provide fire to conquer it. His mother looked to humans and literally lived through the evil of men and decided that she wanted to bring peace through goodwill and believing that even the most evil could do good if given the chance. She had wanted to believe that men were inherently good.

And Tony hadn’t seen that until her letter.

Even her own brother Derek, in him she had wanted to believe that he would take care of Tony should something happen. She might have been wary of him and yet had still made a deal with him believing that when the time came to protect her child her brother would do so with a kind heart and good intentions. 

Tony had seen the evil of men too, had at one point been that evil that he saw, and now he realizes that the differences he was trying to make as Ironman were no greater and deserving of recognition then the ones he made as Tony Stark the philanthropist. 

It was a mental decision that when he returned to Stark Industries that he’d work on turning it into, not only a way for clean energy to surface, but also other charities and climate change and pollution, and hell even feed the starving children. Tony also added to his mental list to give back to America, having one of the highest child poverty rates of any developed country needed to change. 

The Stark Science Expo had been a step in the right direction giving kids a chance to change the world themselves, one invention at a time. But Tony wanted to do more,  _ needed  _ to. For his mother who in all her secrets would always have his love despite what she had feared.

‘But I'll need to get back to civilization to do that-’

His thoughts are cut off when the truck he’s in suddenly rumbles to a stop at a town, though honestly it was more a village than anything else. 

“Final stop. This is where I turn the animals in”

The back of the animal carrier opens and Tony steps out smiling at the man who just spoke to him in chinese. Tony is silently glad his mother had been vicious in her want for him to learn as many languages as he could.

“Thank you” 

Is the reply that Tony gives, in perfect chinese, before petting the goat that he spent the better part of the trip getting used to. Of course the things is slightly evil and tries to bite him but Tony surmises that it's part of the goats charm.

Taking off down the road Tony heads for a different section of the town.

For three months he had done nothing but explore, but now Tony was gonna go to business and investigate.

There had been fifteen KamiKaze Gunmen, and crazily enough fourteen of them had been Chinese citizens. It's one of the reasons Tony had originally chose china as his destination. These men had no green cards and had likely been smuggled into America. Natasha and Vision had already told him that someone had to be gunning for his head. 

Tony decided if nothing else he could do some fieldwork and actually visit were these men had lived. 

Edwin had been instrumental in making sure he stayed current with news. And with the computer he had and his abilities he could hack most systems and found the information on the KamiKaze Gunmen.

Oddly enough the last gunman, the one who had done all the talking, because the fourteen others wouldn’t have been able to speak English being from poor chinese countryside families, had been German. Or at least his mother had been while he’d been born in England. 

But none of the men had an electronic footstep for Tony to follow. No credit card or cell phone, or anything really. And none of them had any family to speak off. Fieldwork would be the only way to figure out any information on them.

This is how Tony ended up in this small chinese countryside town, digging for intel. 

Which, when Tony stood in front of the burned down house of one of the Gunmen, would be easier said than done. He had a sneaking suspicion that he’d likely find the other thirteen houses equally as burned down as this one, though some of them in different towns. It was one way to destroy evidence and only proved that the Gunmen realized this was a suicide mission. 

Tony would have to get information from the towns folk on what happened.

So he headed to the local equivalent of a bar and started asking questions.

“Hey what can you tell me about that burnt house in town and the owner?”

Tony questioned the worker behind the bar who seemed not even the least bit surprised at the question. 

“Aiguo lived there, he was the last remaining kin of his clan after the attack on this town”

Tony is shocked by this, there had been an attack? When and why?

“What can you tell me about the attack?”

The bartender sighs at this and looks around the mostly empty establishment, it's still too early in the day for it to be packed with anything other than the unemployed or those just wasting time. 

“Listen I don’t like just giving info out to anyone, if you want to know something at least buy a drink”

Tony nods his head at this, it's at least the most respectful thing he can go seeing how he is asking for something that doesn’t need to be given.

“Give me 3 of your most expensive drink”

The guy behind the counter looks surprised by this, he gives Tony a glance up and down seemingly doubting the fact that he can actually pay for it. 

When Tony hands him more than enough money for the three drinks he just goes with it and makes them, sitting them in front of the genius.

“Okay here’s what happened, couple years ago, maybe three or four, there was a lot of fighting that broke out across the countryside. People coming in with weapons and taking sons and daughters between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. And after they took them they pretty much shot the whole family and burned down the house. Aiguo’s younger sister was taken and only reason he survived was because he was out working the rice fields when it happened. Government didn’t do anything but cover it up and say that we, the communities it happened to, had started a civil war of sorts with each other. Then threatened that if we said anything about it to the world we’d be wiped off the map”

Tony isn’t amazed by the disregard given to the citizens lives, all governments had corruption and likely the right people had been paid off to turn a blind eye. But not being amazed doesn’t stop him from being disgusted with it. 

“If your not suppose to tell anyone, why are you telling me”

Tony questions this eyeing the male warily. The bartender holds up the money Tony had handed him earlier.

“Mister, you just paid me enough to keep this place running for a good two years. And you’re not the first either. Gentleman a few days ago was here and gave me some decent money too, not nearly as much as you, but still enough to keep me full and running for 6 months at least. And honestly that's more than the government ever gave me, if they wanna come kill me after all this time at least I’ll die rich”

He says this and safely stores the money away from prying eyes before taking a rag and wiping down the counters. 

Tony is amused by this, that money could loosen lips so easily shouldn’t shock him and it doesn’t. He’s just not used to this level of honesty from people, and Tony silently wonders how much this place takes to run because the genius had barely given the male any money at all. 

Tony downs all three of his drinks quickly and the bartender actually watches this with a morbidly fascinated look.

Tony isn’t worried about getting drunk, hasn’t been able to get even tipsy since he enhanced his powers with Extremis. His body and the electricity of it burned through the alcoholic content while simultaneously fixing what it deemed as ‘damage’ so quickly that Tony could drink Steve under the table. On top of that drugs hadn’t had any effect on him too, even the amount they had tried to use at the hospital, that would have knocked Captain America out, didn’t do anything. 

Tony found mild satisfaction in the fact that his metabolism was even more efficient than Steve’s. It was one thing he had that was better than the super soldier and Tony would take it where he could.

“The man that came asking a few days ago, you know which way he headed when he left town”

Tony doesn’t want to be worried but he can’t be certain that someone else has possibly taken interest in this. And they could either be friend or foe. Could even be trying to cover up evidence Tony could find.

“He never left. Doctor fellow. We had an incident a few days before he got here and with the town Doctor out until tomorrow at the least, he stepped in to help, we put him up with room and board and let him use the regular Doctor's clinic for the patients”

Tony has an almost sneaking suspicion of who this person is. And if he’s right…

Excitement fills him and he can’t help but ask where he can find the clinic at before rising and heading towards the door, by this time the place is completely cleared of people and just as Tony is stepping out the male yells out to him.

“Wait! I almost forgot, the weapons they men were using had the Stark Industries symbol on it. We assume they were stolen goods of the company as they don’t make weapons no more, but Aiguo never took it that way. Ran around here saying Tony Stark had taken his sister and tried to get her back. Were all guessing that he went missing a few months ago ‘cause the government finally got fed up with him”

Tony feels something like disgust well up in him. Even after all this time his weapons are still causing people pain and suffering. Still being used in a way to cause terror to innocent folk. 

Waving a hand over his shoulder Tony yells back his thanks before heading out into the afternoon sunlight. He’d deal with stolen weapons later. Right now he had a doctor to find. 

* * *

Entering the clinic he looks around, a woman with her leg splinted is heading towards him, allowing her out the door he questions where the doctor is. She simply points to a back door and makes her way down the street limping.

Glancing around the interior of the clinic Tony can’t help but shunder at the smell of disinfectant and medicine, he’s never liked hospitals or clinics. It was where people went to die. 

‘Though I suppose people die just about everywhere’

Tony thinks this as his own parents death flashes in his head, they had never made it to the hospital.

Shaking such thoughts away he opens the door to what looks to be an office. A door on the side of the office is open and shuffling can be heard. 

“I’ll be right out, give me a minute!”

Tony hears the muffled yell from what he assumes is the medicine cabinet. There's loud bang suddenly and a curse flying and as Tony is just taking step towards the cabinet to investigate, out steps the doctor. 

The other male glances at Tony with a raised eyebrow but otherwise does nothing and moves behind the desk. 

“Please sit down, tell me how I can help you today”

Tony is too shocked to move, too excited and too much energy seems to build up. A crackling fills the air and the genius knows that his hands likely have blue electricity dancing across them. 

The doctor in front of him eyes this warily but doesn’t seem alarmed

“You are a mutant. Are you hurt?”

He looks back up at Tony's face with genuine concern in big brown eyes and Tony can no longer take it. 

“ **_Bruce_ ** ”

The name almost seems to be pulled from Tony's throat like a wounded animal crying out for its parent to save it. 

And just like that Bruce Banner is on the defensive, standing up from the desk and backing away from Tony. 

“Who are you? Why do you know my first name? I’ve only given out Dr. Banner here”

The other male's eyes scan the room obviously taking note of every escape route and where other enemies could hide. His eyes flash green in blatant defiance and Tony almost rushes across the distance between them just to pull the other genius into his arms.

It's been almost ten years since he’s last seen the other genius and even after all this time Tony is still swept away by the wild look in Bruce's eyes, how completely untamable the other is and Tony finds it so amusing that the military and even SHIELD thought they could control this. The Hulk might be the fighter of the two, but Bruce was the true hellion.

Taking a deep breath to try and center himself he looks Bruce in the eyes and smiles one of his fake paparazzi grins before leaning to one side. 

“Come one Brucie baby, I know I’m in disguise but I thought _you’d_ at least recognize me”

Bruce's eyes go wide at the tone of nonchalance but he is still not fully convinced, still warily eyeing Tony. 

“If you’re really Tony Stark, then what was the secret I once told him late at night, when all the world slept but us”

Tony recognizes the phrasing of the sentence. It's one of the many coded ones that him and Bruce had developed for each Avenger. Towards each other, depending on the member, there was a different one and the answers varied depending on what you were trying to convey. If someone was using you and listening in then the answer was typically a playful secret and not serious, but if you were truly alone and seeking a member out and had to prove yourself then the answer was a secret that was shared between the two of you that only you two would know. 

“I remember that night, moonless. Nightmares haunting our shadows, nipping at our heels. Your voice spoke clear that night. Your mother was a mutant”

An emotion seems to well up in Bruce's eyes and before Tony can even begin to name it his arms are full of genius. 

Hugging Bruce is like trying to grip a lion. Warm and fuzzy, his hair tickles your nose and at the time he is content to hug you back in his own way. But as nice as it is to hug, you must never forget that you are in fact hugging something that could kill you. 

Bruce suddenly leans back and Tony, not seeing it coming, is stunned when he’s hit square in the chest two times. For a moment he is so shocked that he actually stumbles back, though the hits weren’t very strong, and he looks at Bruce with wide innocent eyes. 

“You bastard! Why the hell didn’t you ever call me!”

Tony thinks this would likely be funny in a, never having called your wife when you know you're about to do something stupid way, but the billionaire thinks better of pointing out the similarities between the two because of how absolutely hurt Bruce looks.

“I.. uh… what?...”

Tony stutters and, in the hurt, anger flashes. Bruce takes a menacing step forward and Tony quickly backs up pressing against the wall. Fear flashes in Tony briefly, though he knows it's irrational because Bruce would never seriously hurt him, even now his eyes don’t have even a hint of green, but Tony knows Bruce  _ could  _ essentially fuck him up. He still remembers having to fight the male in the Hulk Buster. 

Bruce takes a breath though and pinches the area between his eyes likely feeling a headache coming on. 

Reaching into his pocket he pulls something out and when Tony sees what it is his heart seems to stop. A keening whimper leaves his throat because he  _ understands  _ now why Bruce is so hurt and upset. 

“I waited, always waiting for you Stark”

The use of his last name breaks Tony’s heart. Bruce is holding a STARK-PHONE in his hands, the very same one that Tony had given to him when he first moved into Stark Tower with him. The model is old and newer ones have been released, but Tony knows what Bruce is referring to isn’t the phone but the promise. 

“No matter where you are if you need anything call. And I’ll call you if I ever get in trouble or if I just miss hearing your voice Brucie. Promise”

Tony recalls his exact words from memory and Bruce tenses at them, eyes that were looking at the floor glances up. Anger once again blooming. 

“I never got that call Stark. I didn’t even  _ know _ ! Didn’t know about the Mandarin, or about you and Pepper, or about your arc reactor being removed, didn’t hear about what happened at Stark Expo,  **_nothing_ ** ! The person who called me, the first time this phone rung, it was  **_VISION._ ** You couldn’t be bothered to at least call ‘cause you  _ missed my voice _ !”

And Bruce sounds wrecked, in his little rant he began pacing back and forth hands gripped tight. Tony is surprised, though he shouldn’t be, that not a hint of green shows through. 

And maybe that's what makes him bold. The lack of green showing Bruce’s harmlessness,  like a lion without teeth and Tony is fearless and stupid.

“ **YOU LEFT** !”

The yell is so loud that it surprises Tony who kind of slumps against the wall, like that one admission is enough to tire him completely out. Bruce has stopped pacing and looks shocked, mouth open to say something but no sounds come out.

“You _left_ , just like everyone else. After Ultron,  _ everyone  _ just left. The Avengers, JARVIS,  **_you,_ ** hell even Pepper never looked at me the same way. She  _ mentally  _ left me, there but untouchable. It would have been better if she had simply disappeared like  _ you  _ did”

Tony takes a deep breath and slides down the wall to sit on the floor, knees to his chest. 

“I’m sorry I never called Bruce, I picked up the phone so many times and hovered over the call button with your name on it. But you  _ left without saying goodbye.  _ Natasha had to tell me you were  _ gone.  _ So sorry if I find Vision being the one to inform you of my life occurrences fitting. A phone works two fucking ways Bruce you could have called too”

Tony snaps out the last part his hands rubbing his eyes tiredly. He had been so excited to see someone he knew after being alone for three months, but now he was beginning to regret it. Who knew there was so much baggage with having friends.

Bruce is suddenly sliding down the wall sitting next to Tony, their shoulders and legs lightly touching. Tony flinches at first not having heard Bruce move and knowing he gives off low level electricity, but Bruce doesn’t seem affected by it. So Tony all but collapses against the other male turning his head into Bruce’s shoulder and pushing his face against shaggy hair. 

Bruce has a little bit of a beard but other than that is clean, no sweat or grime built up that Tony himself seems to have, though Bruce has likely been treated kindly by the townsfolk for helping the injured. 

“I never stopped thinking of you Bruce, not once. I just figured you didn’t want to think of me anymore. I have that effect on people. I’m sorry I never called. But I’ll make sure from now on you can’t get rid of me”

Tony mutters the last part cheerfully trying to drain the tension from the air. Bruce laughs at it, so he counts it as a win. 

“You’re an idiot”

It's said affectionately and Bruce grabs Tony hand squeezing it. 

“But you're my idiot”

And just like that all is forgiven and forgotten. And Tony leaning against Bruce silently takes back what he thought earlier, he went looking for a familiar face, but what he was really looking for all along was Bruce's face. 

* * *

“So you’ve been investigating the KamiKaze Gunmen?”

Tony asks this while rubbing his hair dry with a towel, wearing borrowed clothes. 

“Yes, Vision called me about three months ago and told me everything. He asked that I look into it, while him and Natasha worked on getting those politicians exposed. I’ve already visited four of the fourteen gunmen's homes here in China. Aiguo, Gen, Hong, and Jian all seem to have the same story. People attack, take their younger sibling, sometimes sibling **s,** and they are spared because they aren’t home during the raid. Also all their family houses are burned down along with the places they were living afterwards. Each person is filled with hate of some kind and of course wants revenge. But…”

Bruce trails off sitting down on the bed next to Tony’s sprawled form. He is clean for once in what feels like forever. Though the genius billionaire had opted to keep his shoulder length hair and simply cleaned his lumberjack beard up with some scissors rather that cut it all off.   
“...Aiguo is different”

Tony is the one that finishes Bruce's sentence and glances at the other male whose eyes seem alight with a genuine happiness. 

“Yes, he is. The other three family homes that I visited were eventually torn down, rebuilt, and sold to others. Aiguo refused to sale the land of his family house, refused to let it be forgotten. I went to the home, it's in a decrepted state. I found an SI gun Tony, but I discovered something. It's not really your company's gun”

Tony sits up at this and turns to Bruce surprised but also filled with dread.

“Then whose is it, and why the hell is my name printed on the side of it?”

He questions this, wet hair forgotten. Bruce for his part only allows his eyes to trail off after one drop of water where it slides down Tony bare chest and abs. 

Eyes flashing with something Tony can’t name, as it disappears too fast, Bruce catches himself and looks at the far wall over Tony’s shoulder.

“The SI name was peeling off like a damn sticker, so I took a picture of it and sent it to Edwin via the SI phone. It's from a Company in Japan called Kira Corps. It was a weapons company before you put it out of business and was bought out by an entity here in China called Jin Company. Which is odd by itself considering its a humanitarian company.” 

Bruce locks eyes with Tony as he slowly says his next words.

“Jin Company is being put out of business by SI since you switched it to humanitarian and environmental efforts. They used to be the lead in such an area and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some animosity”

Tony has always threatened other companies, but he’s also not one to create a monopoly, not because it's supposedly illegal but because it's just morally wrong. He promotes small businesses and typically is willing to give a good deal to those willing to work together. Jin Comp, was likely too proud to have taken any business deals with SI knowing Pepper wouldn’t pass up a chance to collaborate with the leading Comp. in an area that SI was just moving too. But damn the name of the Company sounded awfully familiar, he just couldn’t place it. 

“We’ll have to check the other places, we’ll have to see if any of the other family homes are still standing and if we can find any other evidence”

Tony says this with a grumble and falls back on the bed.

“Ten people not too bad, at least we’ll have each other”

Bruce says this and lays down next to the other genius throwing a hand over his waist causing a warmth to fill Tony. The move might seem sexual in nature but over the months they had been together, before Bruce left, him and Bruce had become close. The weren’t fucking or anything crude like that but they had existed in a codependency way. After having caught Bruce in a nightmare one night Tony had slept in the same bed as him from then on. 

They had shared so many things together and Tony reaches over the side of the bed to the letter that sits on the night stand, he’d removed it from his clothes when Bruce had began washing everything, and eyes it. Bruce had seen him remove it but hadn’t let his eye linger too long, never asking for things not freely given. Now Tony hands him Maria Stark's letter and simply says. 

“It's from my mother”

Bruce takes it reverently, treating it how Tony himself would. He opens the letter and begins to read the words. 

* * *

“Damn it Brucie, how the hell did I let you talk me into this”

Tony grumbled eyeing the clothes lying on the bed.

“Same way you persuaded me to come to a city named Shanghai filled with over 20 million people”

Bruce called back from the bathroom, before stepping out in only PJ pants and crossed his arms leaning against the door frame. He was amused that Tony had given up all the luxuries in the world and yet this was what caused him to stop and think.

“Tony darling focus, what's the plan. From the beginning, tell me”

Bruce grinned walking to the bed and snapping his fingers in front of Tony’s face, before taking a seat next to the other genius.

“Okay, we sneak in; break into the main server and memory bank of the company. Have Edwin and I both begin searching for anything to do with the KamiKaze Gunmen and the missing kids. We then leak the information to every major media network in the world and every social media website, or at least Edwin will do that…”

Tony trailed off closing his eyes and placing a hand to his head, making sure he hasn’t forgotten anything.

“...I just don’t get it. Every house, every stolen child, and those fake weapons with my name on it. Aiguo, Chi, Chen, Fai, Gang, Hong, Gen, Hai, Jian, Kong, Lok, Jun, Lei, and Liang. All left alive by not being where their families were at the time of the raid. But Gen, Chen, Hai, Jun, and Liang were all estranged from their families, they lived in cities! Hell of the fourteen, nine had great jobs, for their level of education at least, and showed no violent tendencies! Why give that up if they were doing so well for themselves? And why would a Company like Jin Comp. take all these years to develop something like this. All these weapons planted and people stolen and yet only after four years do they use it and at most they sent the remaining relatives on a suicide mission? Seriously!?”

Tony has risen from the bed at this point and is pacing back and forth. Bruce only calmly watches this though he is silently amused by the others outburst. Tony had mentioned before all these things seeming just a bit suspicious.

“Well that’s why we’re hacking their security system. One that  _ you  _ created might I add. And you never know just because people have jobs and money doesn’t always mean they're happy”

Bruce smiled as Tony huffed and threw his hands into the air utterly disgruntled at hearing something said at least five times.

“Yes Brucie thanks for reminding me! I was a weapons company but the creator of Jin Comp., or more his son who later became the CEO and owner after his father, was a friend of mines. Wei Jin always backed and funded me and I did the same for him, even with us at opposite spectrums we realized that without war people wouldn’t look towards peace and without peace, war would not cause adrenaline to pump through the veins of those dictatorious few who treat troops like chess pieces. I just figured if I gave those pieces on my side a fighting chance then I could at least save some lives…”

Tony now slightly melancholy trails off with eyes on the ground, mouth in a tight line, before a sigh feels the air. It is one of utter defeat. Wei Jin had been a very good friend to Tony, especially at galas and other such events that he hated attending. The other male had kept Tony out of trouble which Pepper had liked and approved of. And even if the chinese man hated what Tony’s company created he had never blamed Tony for profiting from it. Tony had asked him why once, only to be told that just like him Tony had inherited something he had never asked for but was expected to take. Like being given a child that wasn’t really yours but told to treat it as such, even if doing so brought you no joy or contentment. Wei had earned Tony's respect and friendship that day. He just  _ understood _ .

“...I was wrong, I could only see one side of it, the side I wanted to see. War is Hell and at the end of the day the weapons don’t make the soldier, the heart does and nothing is more the heart of a human being than their family waiting at home for them. It’s the reason I began only making defensive measures for the military, my new goal is to bring them home rather than make them kill more enemies, because even our civilian enemies have families to go home too, no matter how much I might not agree with their ideologies”

Tony spat the last part out a scowl covering his face.

“Pretty words coming from Ironman, you don’t exactly leave those you attack alive often”

Bruce is not malicious when he points this out. He cannot scold anyone for killing; his body was covered in blood. He had turned himself into a living breathing weapon, a monster.

“I don’t fight normal enemies anymore Bruce. Not since I first became Ironman, I retrieved my weapons and now the only people I ever fight are those that are simply too powerful for the military to fight. Imagine them trying to take on Ultron, Ivan Vanko, The Mandarin, or hell even Loki”

Bruce nods to this logic; Tony has never used to suit on what you could consider civilians unless they were super powered in some way or posed a threat too large for the proper authorities to handle. Normal criminals would likely shit themselves if Tony showed up in the suit to get them.

“I digress though; I made the security for the Company for a friend. I didn’t know he would later be kicked from his own Company by his board. I convinced Pepper to hire him as Head of our China Branch, which he still is and he was quite happy with the change in Company objective to philanthropist ideals. I’d be worried about my board doing the same if not for the fact that all the tech I come up with is in my name and not the companies. Dear old Dad never wanted to deal in stolen property and set a company document up for each scientist to be able to keep their tech unless written over to the company and if they died their scientific property was given to their next of kin typically a spouse or eldest child or even split amongst the children depending on what the tech was”

Tony snorted and crossed his arms finally sitting back down as he said this. Bruce recognized the change in topic for what it was, an escape from things too emotional. Tony only ever had such deep and truthful conversations with Bruce, and Bruce always returned the favor. But now was not the time, they had a mission to accomplish and they’d need all their attention on that.

“As it stands I created a security measure that most don’t know about at Jin Comp. Only Wei  and I were privy to it. But instead of housing the main server for the company and the memory dump of it in the main HQ I put it in one of their side offices buildings. I also only made it able to be hacked by actually hooking up to this motherboard. Most idiots are gonna break into the HQ and try to get in via one of the sub serves that most think is the main one, but won’t be able to and will just leave thinking their hacking skills aren’t very good, never realizing they had the wrong thing”

Tony chuckles almost evilly at this and Bruce can’t help the fond smile that crosses his lips. Tony had always been proud of things he created, especially when he thought he’d been especially creative in it. And Bruce would admit that it was a pretty interesting plan, there was only one thing…

“What if they moved it when they fired Wei?”

Another chuckle bursts from Tony's mouth this one equally dark and mischievous.

“Only way they’d be able to move it is by getting in contact with me to help do it. On top of that it was supposedly a bad falling out when the board fired Wei. He never told them and it wasn’t something he kept note of anywhere because it was a secret. And I certainly didn’t tell them, I might have let the new CEO know if he’d taken the offer to work together Pepper likely gave them. But from my knowledge they didn’t and to think the Company completely slipped my mind after Wei left it”

Bruce joins in with the chuckles this time, a wide grin on both their faces. A simple Jin office building who didn’t even know it housed the main server of the Company. This would be too easy. Bruce eyed the clothes on the bed and Tony who had turned to look at him caught where his attention had gone.

“Brucie babes, do I really have to wear that? It’s so demeaning, not that I’m saying that people that typically wear it are scum or anything but I’ve never even done anything involved in this occupation before, I hire these people to do it for me!”

Bruce just out right laughs at Tony’s frown that slowly morphs into a glare at the fact that the other genius continues to be amused by his plight.

“No worries Tony I’ve done this before. As have most normal people. And I’m sure you’re not completely telling the truth, Maria and Jeeves likely had you do it too. Stop complaining, you just don’t like the way it looks on you”

Bruce rubs Tony’s back at this, still laughing and the other male just pouts taking the ribbing from his science bro because he’s not wrong. Tony had never looked bad in anything, except the clothes lying on the bed. But then again at least no one would know it was Tony Stark.

“Okay, fuck it. Let’s just get this over with then”

Tony hopes he doesn’t regret trusting Bruce.

* * *

“I fucking hate you Bruce”

Tony says this with so much anger that Bruce would believe him if he didn’t know that he was just talking shit at the moment because of what he was doing.

“Shut up you spoiled princess and fucking scrub”

Bruce hisses this back and he can’t help but laugh because Tony really is acting like a spoiled princess.

“Stop talking in English damn it. In fact just stop talking at all! A janitor that can’t even clean vomit up right! Seriously what type of help do we have today?”

The woman behind them, an office manager, says this in Chinese with an air of superiority.

“Should have just been fucking security guards or something”

Tony receives a blank and unamused look from Bruce at this. He already knew they couldn’t do that because Jin Comp. always employed their own security guards directly from the Comp. Unlike the janitorial help they got from a second or sometimes third party. Which meant Bruce and Tony had slipped in easily after throwing the actual cleaning crew off.

But the moment they stepped in the building, after ‘cleaning’ the security footage and camera room, the woman making commentary had called them to clean up the vomit that a sick employee had just upchucked. She liked Bruce already, giving flirty looks and touches and comments to the other male who seemed to somehow make the Janitors uniform look regal. And hated Tony who, with his floppy hair, longish beard, and dull silver/green eyes, made him look like a street urchin playing dress up as someone _legally_ employed. All in all he, at the very least, looked shady as fuck. It probably helped that Bruce actually knew how to clean vomit easily and went right to it but Tony had froze and refused to move to clean up someone else’s disgusting body fluid mess at first. The look Bruce gave him spurred Tony into motion but he still wasn’t doing much of anything. 

“Oh honestly, just leave. Shoo. Go clean the bathrooms on the third floor. Maybe that will not be too hard for you”

The woman said these words to Tony who didn’t have to be told twice and quickly stood up. The third floor was where the server room was anyways. So it worked out well.

Heading for the door he caught Bruce’s suddenly desperate look as the woman stared at him with hunger in her eyes, like the poor man was a piece of meat. Tony mouthed an apology and right before the door closed he heard,

“Now that we’re alone sweetheart, why don’t you tell me your name? And just how a handsome specimen like you ended up as only a janitor…”

Tony took off down the hall and when he was finally out of hearing range he began to laugh. He laughed so hard that tears actually began to form. Every bit of guilt he felt for leaving Bruce was quickly knocked aside by the fact that the other genius had made him wear such an ill fitting outfit, who would have thought that it would work out so well. 

Moving toward the elevator Tony quickly detoured from there when he saw some other works waiting on it. While they were likely leaving for the evening, Tony didn’t want too many people seeing his or Bruce's face at the moment. They had already messed with the camera, because of the security system Tony had set up for the Company, which extended to all the branches, they weren’t able to hack them. What they did do was cover their faces when they entered and ‘cleaned’ the security room. As an office building they had one security guard that left at the sametime as the workers. The male had already gone home for the evening and after Tony and Bruce cleaned it was their job to lock up.

Which meant they had the key to every room, they’d gone to the camera room and moved all the cameras in the building so they had numerous blind spots. 

Taking the stairs two at a time Tony made it from the second floor to the third easily. He immediately saw the bathroom he was suppose to clean and locked it so if anyone came by they wouldn’t be able to say as a definite answer that he wasn’t there.

He moved to the server room though it was labeled ‘Janitor's Closet’, another precaution Wei and him had taken. Opening the door with the keys given by the actual cleaners Tony entered closing and locking the door behind him. Bruce had another set, he’d be able to get in if need be. 

While the room  **was** being used to house janitor materials, it was slightly bigger than a ‘closet’. About the size of a small bathroom that housed a tub and sink in it. At the back implanted in the wall was the very thing he was looking for. 

It looked like a circuit breaker panel box, a perfect disguise for something so powerful. And god could Tony see it all. Even with the lights in the room off the box on the back wall was like a beacon and it practically  _ sung  _ to Tony.

“Shit this thing is sexy”

Tony mentally patted himself on the back for having created something so beautiful, as he stepped forward and opened the box. He had built this thing years ago and even now it was still a work of art in technological terms. On the inside Tony grinned because what he needed was covered by what looked like circuit switches. Taking a flat head screwdriver out his pocket and he placed it between a the edge of the circuit switches panel and the surface of the breaker box. With a little force the switches came off easily and what lied behind was a single port. 

The port was no different than a regular USB one, just in a diamond shape. 

“Shit I hope this works”

Tony rubbed his hands together and reached inside himself pulling at the ball of power the seemed to sit right between his navel and chest. When he opened his eyes they glowed a bright blue and electricity seemed to crackle over his skin at random intervals.

In Tony's eyes, while before he could faintly make out the electricity and technology in the building, now everything seemed to come alive. He could see and feel and understand so much at once. Almost too much at once. Could look through the walls of the building and find pockets of power, hell he could see Bruce and the stuck up office worker one floor below him, could reach out and touch. 

‘Damn, why haven’t I ever noticed how different Bruce’s nervous system is’

Tony thought this looking at the other male, or really more like feeling him. In a way Tony wasn't actually seeing through the floor and walls but essentially feeling through them. After his powers had felt the electricity and technology around it, his brain created an imagine on what it could identify. Which was why he couldn’t see the chair the nasty office lady sat in, because it housed no electricity or technological parts, or Tony assumed it was a chair, for a minute he had thought the woman had acquired powers of some kind and was floating in the air.

Bruce however caught his attention with how bright he was. Or more like how fast his nervous system moved. Like it never settled, it just continuously snapped with life and energy. It blinked off and on in brightness, and Tony couldn’t help but wonder if this was how Bruce kept the Hulk at bay. He had said he was always angry, but maybe it was just that he kept his nervous system in a state of influx so that the Hulk got used to both highs and lows. Which likely meant Bruce typically called on the Hulk rather than the other guy simply taking control, unless it was a life or death situation. Pure speculation on Tony’s part, but if it was true then Bruce had excellent control over his body and its functions. 

Turning away from Bruce and the curiosity that was his nervous system, Tony glanced back at the flat surface that only housed a diamond shaped port. Tony did not have the piece needed to hook a computer up. It had been the final precaution that Wei and him had taken.

The only cord in the world able to fit the port had to be made and the only person who could make it was Tony himself though Wei had memorized the blueprints of it and could have possibly found someone adequate enough to make it. But having no access to a lad made making things harder.

As it stood though, Tony didn’t need it, he could just access the server with his mind and open it for Edwin to enter so they could search the files. For his powers to work he had needed to be close to the server, which was housed in a room that had no actual entrance so everything would need to be done via the port. 

Tony placed his palm over the port and flat against the surface. Closing his eyes he allowed himself to reach forward and into the server. The access was almost instantaneous, hacking was practically a cake walk this way. It was like being in cyberspace and having an endless reach into Jin Comp. and their information. Edwin joined him not long after and oddly enough the other male seemed to have a body of sorts. 

But it wasn’t a real body, like an impression of sorts yet more tangible. Like hearing someone's voice and knowing their specific hair, eyes and skin color yet not having seen them before. Your mental image was close but never really right. Edwin seemed to look nothing like who he was named after, but he was tall, lean maybe? With brown hair, blue eyes and pale skin? 

Honestly as easy as this place was to navigate it also left some confusion in it wake. Something's Tony's mind couldn’t seem to fully comprehend. LIke where exactly he  _ was _ , but as long as he knew what he was looking for he wouldn’t drown in the junk info. 

Tearing through emails and camera records and everything else including scanned files, Tony and Edwin was able to piece together quite a lot of information.

‘It would seem sir, that this plot is much bigger than we originally thought. How fascinating’

Edwin spoke this to Tony and the genius actually shuddered slightly at how much emotion he could actually pick up from the AI’s voice. He was human here! It was so  _ weird _ ! Even if Edwin was like JARVIS and took initiative and learned, they had both always been reserved in tone fluctuations and Tony never truly heard that much emotion in tone of voice. Here in this techno limbo everything that was electrical and technological almost seemed  _ alive _ .

Shaking his head at the craziness of it all, but not  _ really  _ shaking anything because he didn’t have a head in techno limbo, Tony turned his attention to what they had complied. He had Edwin send out the information that was safe for public knowledge to every major news network and then plastered it across social media with a proxy account.

Jin Company seemed to be in business with a gang in Japan called Kira, which had been connected to the company Kira Corps. In return for creating ties with Hydra and Jin Company, the gang had asked for children to train and add to their ranks. Jin Company seemed to have secretly been in the business of bomb and weapon making, using Kira Corps as a cover up, which earned them quite a few government friends who had turned the other way on the town raids. The Company had hoped that by planting the fake guns that should anyone come snooping SI would be put in the spotlight and not them.

They had later sent the killers because the CEO, the one who took over after Wei, had been fed up with how much further in sells and creations SI seemed to be. Also Tony had supposedly slighted him at a gala recently, which the genius didn't remember doing. Tony still hated those things and when he was forced to go to them he avoided talking to most people. 

Tony was a little pissed that everyone in the Convention Center had been put in danger because one guy couldn’t stand the fact that Tony’s Company was doing better than his and on top of that because Tony had brushed him off! 

‘I might not kill civilians anymore but fuck I’ll make an exception for this dickhead’

Tony mentally decided this already planning how it would go down. 

Of course the information sent to the public hadn’t included anything to do with Hydra, normal folk didn’t know about the shadowy organization and anyone who learned and looked into taking them down would likely only get in the way and get hurt. Hydra was just one of those things that needed to be destroyed secretly. On top of that they had used same brainwashing techniques on a few of the gunmen, which really couldn’t be released without possibly causing mass panic and paranoia.

Edwin had discovered that there were some American politicians who were working with Jin Comp., to kill Tony or at least lock him up for a long time. But after the incident at the Convention Center Hydra had become interested in experimenting on Tony, likely brainwashing was involved. Tony only wished that the American politicians involved had been named, yet Tony couldn’t find information on it anywhere. Which likely meant that Jin Comp. didn’t know and that was done through Hydra itself. 

The good part was that he knew where the children were and had each of their names along with pictures and other data. That information was sent to the proper authorities and Tony had Edwin send to Pepper an email telling her to ready some charity money for them. Kira Gang information was easily found and sent out and the group would be reduced to nothing, but Tony didn’t want to kids to be left to governmental systems. Even after two years with the gang many had survived and hadn’t been forced to do anything other than smuggle drugs and other things into different places. All of which could seen as coerce because when met with defiance it led to death. As was shown in quite a few videos and files Tony had collected and sent out as a way to stop many of the kids from being charged in a trial. 

It was a mess and Hydra would likely go even deeper underground afterwards but Tony couldn’t hang on to such information while people suffered. Even if he had held off and attempted to follow the links to a possible Hydra agent who’s to say if the person was high ranking enough to have any relevant information anyways. 

Tony pulls himself from the system after once again sweeping it with Edwin and deciding if he was going to release one major company dirty secret he might as well give them all out. He had even sent out the name of the chinese government officials who had been bribed to look the other way. Jin Comp would likely become nonexistent by the time this was over. Tony absently wondered if Wei would be upset by it, but brushed it off. The other male had never wanted to be CEO of his father's Company. In his new position he had more free time and wiggle room to actually spend time with the family he had created. Tony was almost envious of the chinese males family with a wife and son. But he shook such things from his mind.

Once he had recovered from entering the server he glanced at his watch. 

‘Huh, twenty minutes. Not bad’

Tony mentally patted himself on the back and jumped out of his skin when a hand grabbed his shoulder. Turning around his electricity crackled over the person's palm and they released him sharply. Standing behind him was Bruce. 

The gamma scientist watched with fascination at his hand that slightly trembled before giving it a shake to make it go away. 

“Thats one way to knock someone out. If it wasn’t for my unique biology I’d likely be unconscious or dazed from a shock like that Tony” 

Bruce said all this calmly and seemed amused. His eyes were only slightly green. The Hulk seeing no threat receded though, bring back brown eyes.

“Well Bruce now you know not to go sneaking up on a guy, almost gave me a heart attack”

Tony placed the circuit switches back inside and closed the breaker box. Before giving Bruce his complete attention. The scary woman from before hadn’t seemed to have cause any lasting damage.

“You should probably never do that whole inserting yourself into a system thing without someone to watch your back. You give off some serious electricity that would kill a normal person but not everyone is normal as we know. And you vulnerable when you're like that”

Bruce spoke this with concern and in a tone the brooked no argument. This was obviously something he cared about deeply. So Tony said nothing, but nodded in acknowledgment. He knew how to pick and chose his battles, besides someone having his back was always nice. 

They both made their way down the stairs to the first floor and towards the front door. Tony silently hoped that the woman from before would be gone but he had no such luck.

“And where are you going? There is no way you finished cleaning that fast. Especially with this one...” she gestured to Tony “not being able to clean the simplest of thin-”

At this point the billionaire genius was just fed up with the woman. Only reason she was still here was likely for Bruce. So Tony did what he had to do, he cut her off. 

“Listen lady we quit, I’m not interested in watching you flirt and throw yourself at my boyfriend all fucking night”

Tony’s quick and effortless chinese seemed to shock her, he hadn’t spoken anything but English in front of the woman so maybe she assumed he couldn’t speak it?

To drive his point home though, Tony turned to Bruce, he grabbed the back of his head sinking his hands into the soft brown curls and pulled the other genius into a kiss. Tony made sure to keep it sweet and innocent but Bruce seemed to immediately grab the others waist pulling him flush against his front and deepening the kiss. 

‘Oh god, Bruce is a great fucking kisser’

Tony thought this while getting his lower lip bitten causing him to gasp. Bruce used this as a chance to invade his mouth and Tony couldn’t help fighting for dominance before giving up to allow the other to explore rubbing and twisting their tongues together. 

What interrupted them was a loud curse from the woman in front of them. Tony pulled back and whipped his head to her only to be met with a bright red face and a nose bleed. The women was literally watching them like it was the best thing she had ever seen in her life. 

“That was hot”

Tony blushed bright scarlet at this comment from the woman and Bruce couldn’t help but laugh completely unaffected by it. Blood dripped to the front of her blouse and the chinese woman cursed again before taking off in the direction of the bathroom. Tony watched her go slightly thrown off balance. 

Bruce caught his attention by suddenly giving his ass a tight squeeze before releasing him and stepping away. 

“I think we’ve finished business here Tony let's head out. Very quick thinking on you part. I’m sure the kiss sold it”

Bruce said this heading towards the door completely unbothered by what had happened. Tony didn’t know how to feel about that, but he figured it could have been a worse reaction. He could have been slapped. 

Shaking his head Tony went after the other male trying to figure out if that kiss was all acting for Bruce. Touching his lips he looked at the others broad back, his stomach fluttered and for the first time in a while, Tony felt like he was in over his head. 

* * *

It was a full year before Tony took a step on American soil again.

Not that he noticed a year had passed, it had taken all of six months after meeting Bruce to actually compile enough information about the fourteen gunmen. Which meant nine months had passed by without Tony ever coming up for air in that investigation alone. 

After they had released all the information they found out that the Kira Gang ended up causing more problems than Tony or Bruce expected. Some of them were Mutants and while in this day and age Mutants served in all occupations, including police officers, the Japanese police was not exactly the cornerstone for change. Not only were they lacking in Mutant officers, they also had sloppy regulations for handling Mutants to begin with. 

SI had released a way to temporarily contain Mutant powers for those being transported to prisons, those of which specialized in Mutants and were run by them too. A way to stop prejudice was to allow Mutants to jail their own kind and to slowly integrate the prison system over time as Mutants became the norm, which they were at a shocking rate. Almost 5 out of 10 babies born in the world had a mutation of some kind and the number grew annually. It was evolution taking over and at the end of the day you were with with it, or considered extinct. 

The temporary handcuffs and collars, for those mutants whose mutation made handcuffing hard, only lasted a week or two tops. Tony had designed it that way and included a failsafe that if anyone messed with them to extent that time period not only would he know, but the technology would also explode. On top of that cuffs and collars couldn’t be switched out, they each ran on a network with each other meaning one would know if the other had just been used on the same mutant. While a week or two wasn’t ideal for holding Mutants it meant that police would have to file and transport them to a secure mutant ran facility quickly, something easily done by efficient countries. 

But as is prone to happen, certain countries didn’t take the precautions needed to adequately do this. Not only had Japan not checked to see if some of the Gang members were Mutants they also, upon them all breaking out of jail, waited to call for backup from Mutant officers until the situation was dire. 

Bruce and Tony heard about the situation from Edwin whom had passed the message along from Black Widow. They were taking a break on catching politicians and were going to help the X-Men handle the problem in Japan. The only good thing the police had done was contain the problems within Tokyo.

And it was as if suddenly every Kira Gang member that had escaped had up and decided if they were gonna go down, they’d cause as much mayhem and damage as possible. Bruce had just barely convinced Tony to stay out of it, that Ironman suddenly showing up would look bad for the team and only cause more trouble when someone likely attempted to capture him. 

Tony had never, since the Incident at the Convention Center, felt so helpless. After a few days of  brooding around Xi'an, as they had moved from Shanghai after the hack, Tony had finally gotten fed up. He decided that if he couldn’t help as Ironman, then he’d help as Technomancer. Bruce had laughed at the name of course, which ultimately lead to Tony telling him in a snappish voice,

“It's a fucking work in progress Bruce. Damn, lay off. And we have a plane to catch so stop looking so sexy and put some real clothes on”

The comment only made Bruce laugh harder though. At least he changed out of his PJ’s during it. 

This was exactly how Tony and Bruce ended up in Shinjuku, Japan no more than a day later. Travel was easy when you had money and Japanese Bullet Trains always made getting from point A to point B fast. While Tony couldn’t make an appearance he could still speak through the headset that the X-Men and Ex-Avengers used. So when he hooked himself in using his powers the others were of course more than surprised, especially considering it was suppose to be a secure line that some Mutant named Beast had made. After some serious drilling about his current location and why the hell he thought it was a good idea to show up, Tony was finally able to help. 

One of the issues they were having with the Kira Gang was that there were quite a lot of them and Tokyo had been a major base of operation. Not only were they causing chaos but after they did, they’d disappear into hideouts and holes. Then it became a matter of finding someone who knew the city better than any of the help that arrived, along with having to save any civilians who might have gotten caught in the cross fires. 

That was something Tony could help with. 

Which is how the plan that Tony was going to literally hijack a satellite came into fruition. Tony hooked himself up to the biggest electrical tower in Shinjuku and connected to the closet Satellite before spreading himself out over every electronic item in Tokyo Japan. He opened a backdoor for Edwin and together they weren’t only able to track down the gang members to be taken down but also found some of the other Chinese children who had been locked away as soon as Kira Gang information became public. 

With the satellite in his control Tony's reach almost seemed to spread around the world, bouncing from satellite to satellite until-

Until it was too much information. 

Good news is Tony didn’t overload, but he did pass out.

By the time he came back a few weeks had passed and Tony had entered his eleventh month off of American soil. 

Bruce had moved them to Yokohama, a port city South of Tokyo. While Tony expected to wake up in a hospital he was grateful that it hadn’t happened. Even with his fake name and ID he didn’t want to explain how he had smuggled Bruce and himself into Japan from China. 

Money spoke.

His unconsciousness was from giving too much energy trying to understand and sort through the information he was receiving while attached to the satellite. So much energy being expended meant he had depleted himself, something Tony had never done before which had resulted in his few weeks unconscious. 

To think three months spent exploring before finding Bruce, then six months used investigating the KamiKaze Gunmen, another month of the Japanese police fucking shit up with the Kira Gang and reinforcements arriving. And practically a whole month asleep recharging like a battery. 

Later Tony found out that Bruce had literally charged him at one point and had placed the Tony hand onto an outlet. But had to remove it an hour later when the hotel lights had started flickering ominously. Bruce had also found pleasure in placing electrical objects on Tonys body only to watch them turn on. Like the light bulb he had somehow balanced on his forehead that actually lite up. The fact that Bruce had so much fun experimenting with Tony’s unconscious body almost made him feel violated. 

The only good thing Bruce had done was get a recording of what happened right before Tony passes out. To say the least, it was badass, but on a much smaller scale than the Convention Center had been. 

His body had literally glowed, completely covered by white electricity like armor and his eyes a bright and blazing blue. That lasted all of two or three minutes, leaving a sizable burn mark on the ground  and a knocked out Tony Stark. It had likely made his powers stronger, in fact Tony knew this surge had made his powers stronger because of the simple fact that when he woke up he had to once again adjust his information level like before in the hospital. Belatedly he wondered just how much stronger he could get from here.

Tony didn’t question how Bruce had moved him from Shinjuku to Yokohama, and he kind of had a feeling that he didn’t want to know. He’s sure it involved some smuggling, like Tony was a kidnapped victim or something equally unsavory. 

The twelfth month of Tony's self imposed exile was mostly spent revealing the truths behind the politicians who wanted Tony jailed. Even with the separate prisons for Mutants they had arranged for him to arrive at a research facility a few months into his stay at a mutant prison. It would be played off as Tony helping in some form of military defense but really he’d be the one getting cut open. 

All the details were not only graphic but also surprisingly sensible in an inhumane way. A list of experiments to be done on him before the ultimate end of him being brainwashed. While everything hadn’t been released to news networks and social media the jist of what would have happened after the sham trial was clear. To place the proverbial final nail in the coffin, every scandal and skeleton of the politicians were released with full information and details to back it up. 

It would go down in history as the biggest hacking job done ever on America. Of course they would never know that some of it was plain espionage and surveillance on Black Widow and Spidermans part and not just hacked items. 

The twelfth month is also when Tony was informed that one of the children from the Convention Center hadn’t survived. That even as Tony killed the KamiKaze Gunmen one male had shot and hit the girl in her skull.

That was a bad week for Tony. 

Because the girl who died had been the very one who had wanted to use wavelengths to influence positive emotions into people. Sarah Maxwell at age fifteen did not live long enough to see her invention completely change the lives of depression victims and those who suffered from certain forms of PTSD. Never saw it change the way anger management was helped and those who suffered from sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies were changed for the better.

The headgear had the ability to help people feel an emotion and then over time they would be able to feel it and control the negative emotions that often welled up more often than the good ones. She had created something that helped people get better, not something that would act as a crutch and be needed to be used for the rest of their lives. 

Tony had the Convention Center named after her and a memorial put out front. He changed the Expo name to the Sarah Maxwell Science Expo and every year would have the girls life story and invention accomplishments read at it. He allotted scholarship money, in her name, to be won by any and all students, excluding the ones who made it into the Expo, as they were already given much. 

Her parents and younger brother would never worry about another thing in their life. Not bills, or clothes, or food, or schooling. SI would take care of everything with a very generous monthly allowance. 

And Tony knew it wasn’t his fault, knew that the girl had been in a coma for months now and when she had lost most of her brain activity her parents had decided to pull the plug. Because that's what Sarah would have wanted, to live without her full brain functions, to never become a scientist, as was her biggest dream, that would have broken her heart. So her family had let go.

Knowing this did not stop Tony from cling to Bruce, at night for days, and crying his eyes out until he could no longer keep them open. Did not stop him from sobbing so hard that his voice disappeared and even forming the smallest sounds stung his throat. And it certainly did not stop Tony from thinking, guiltily, 

‘Thank God it wasn’t Harley’.

* * *

“Pepper it's fucking Christmas!”

Pepper was happy to have Tony back and though the male stepping off the private jet didn’t look like him very much, honestly the long brown hair with blond tips along with a reddish lumberjack beard and his tanned skin and slightly more muscular built, but his eyes screamed Anthony Edward Stark. 

Bright Blue Eyes Glowing With Power and Intelligence.

“Tony...”

All professionalism forgotten she pulled the other male into a hug crushing him to her chest. 

“...I’ve missed you”

Pepper promised she wouldn’t cry, this wasn’t like last time with Afghanistan. Tony had left, hadn’t been taken, but had hidden himself away from the world. Pulling back she flashed the male a smile which was returned with a wide grin, a genuine Tony smile. 

Her eyes travel over his shoulders and a noise of confusion and surprise left Pepper's mouth.

“ _ BRUCE! _ ?”

The other genius waved nervously and Tony couldn’t help but roll his eyes. 

‘Oh yeah, he’s nervous around Pep, but with me I get all the sass in the world’

Tony zoned back in as Pepper pulled away from him and scurried over to Bruce giving him a tackling hug. 

“Hey! I thought I was the one you missed most!”

Tony is teasing of course and Pep knows this, which is why she glances over her shoulder, a mischievous light in her eyes

“I saw you about a year ago Tony. I haven’t seen Bruce in  **YEARS** , since you ran him off with you pinning”

Tony places a hand over his heart as Bruce’s laughter fills the air. 

“Damn Pep, I’m hurt. Talk about a low blow”

Pepper simply giggles at this before pulling away from a still laughing Bruce to straighten her outfit and fix her hair. Both of which is still impeccable, but Tony knows better than to point it out. 

“Now like I said before it’s Christmas and this is your present”

Tony hands Pepper the computer he originally got in China, though now it's in a carry case. By her confused looked the genius can’t help the small laugh the leaves his mouth. 

“In your hands you hold over 50 brand new inventions that I’ve come up with to implement, blueprints and all. Along with targeting areas and audiences. Its also got a list of upgrades for all our current entertainment and defense items. I’ve placed some heavy encryptions on everything just in case I lost it, but hook Edwin up and you’ll be golden”

By the end of Tony’s speech Peppers eyes have widened more than Tony has ever seen them. And the wide smile that breaks across her face makes him remember why he fell in love with her to begin with. She was gorgeous and so full of life.

“Well Tony it seems you’ve single-handedly saved my job. The Board was getting antsy and I thought they’d fire me as CEO, I was just able to hold them off and when the whole plan to take you was revealed they retreated into their holes. Though with these I’m sure they’ll retreat even further than that now”

Pepper kisses his cheek as she says this and holds the computer close to her person as if scared someone might attempt to snatch it. Tony scowls slightly at the fact that the Board even thought they could replace Pepper without him backing the decision, but is still glad he’s returned in time to save a best friends career.

Speaking of friends…

“Where the hell are the others? I bring Brucie back as a gift and they're not even here to see it”

Tony glances around at this though he’s actually kind of hurt they didn’t show up to see him. In fact where the hell..??

“And where’s the car?? How the hell did you get here??”

Pepper is grinning and now trying to hold in a laugh at Tony confused face, as the male does a full circle. 

“The others had class and couldn’t make it, a lot's happened in a year Tony. I’ll tell you on the way come on”

Pepper motions the others to walk around the other side of the plane they’ve just descended and there sits a mini version of the infamous X-Men Blackbird. It distinctly reminds Tony of a quinjet in a way but more sleek looking. 

“You can fly that thing?”

Tony is the slightest bit worried. Not that Pepper was a bad driver but there was one time the woman had almost ran him over after he got out the car, because obviously it was common knowledge to always go behind the car that drops you off somewhere. 

“Autopilot, but yes I do know what to do in emergency situations”

Stepping on to the plane Tony mentally categories the difference between a Quinjet and a Mini Blackbird. Seat arrangement is one that's major, this thing was built for a team that worked together on guns and attacks. A quinjet was for soldiers, two pilots and cargo ready to drop and fight. Different ideals. 

As Tony and Bruce sat down in the seats lines up behind Pepper she began inserting things into a touch screen panel. The Mini BB began rising from the air before taking off. 

“So..??”

Tony trials off and watches Pepper turn her chair around, Bruce is looking equally as curious. 

“Yes, Yes I promised answers”

Then Tony and Bruce a bombarded with so much info it's hard to wrap their heads around it. 

After Tony had left the fight and sent Steve and the Avengers on the wild goose chase to California via the Autopilot quinjet, things just got worse. Steve after finding out Tony was never on the Jet had made good on his promise and stripped the others of their Avenger title. Rhodey’s involvement lead the politicians to get him kicked from the military and the War Machine suit taken from him. What saved him were the friends he had made in all the departments of the military who were against it. At the end he was simply Honorably Discharged and the suit confiscated. Tony had set a failsafe to the suit however, the moment the Military began messing with it and trying to give it to another pilot, the suit had moved on its own and returned itself to Rhodey. From there they simply left it alone. 

Natasha and Vision, without Avenger Immunity, were considered a war criminal and an Alien lifeform respectively. Black Widow was to be captured and executed and Vision deported from Earth all together. The X-Men, whom they were all staying with, granted them their immunity and were made honorary members. All the talk on Immunity brought to the forefront of Tony’s mind the treaty that had been signed some years ago by almost every country in the world. Essentially stating that Superhero groups were under no one government's control and everyone in the group had an immunity to certain laws. However should anyone in the group be seen as working against the best interest of humanity as a whole they would be all treated as war criminals. Likely one of the reasons Steve had to let the others go, by not denouncing them, he could be condemning the other Avengers to war criminals. Especially if it was brought to a vote by the countries involved and they decided that the Avengers were against humanity. 

Peter Parker, or Pete as most called him when he wasn’t spidey, had started working with SI as a way to stop the Board from completely going through with trying to fire Pepper. He had created some things and updated others. He’d also gotten into MIT, much to Tony’s happiness, though stuck to the Online Program they had. Only because he wanted to be nearby if something happened and he was teaching classes on physics, biology, chemistry, and computers at the X-Mansion. In fact all the Ex-Avengers were teaching some class or another. It would seem Charles had been understaffed for a while and was more than happy to allow the Honorary X-Men to fill in until permanent professors could be found. And as long as the students passed the State test in the subjects they would receive credit without the teachers being certified, the school was almost like a private/home school thing. And more of them were being funded and founded everyday, though Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters would always be the original.

Thor had also made an appearance a few months back and had mentioned how he did not agree with Steve on the subject involving Tony. On Asgard it seemed that no matter what your brother in arms did you always had their back, which explained his reluctance to fight Loki all those years ago, even when everyone else was against you. He also knew how good Natasha was at gaining information and he couldn’t possibly understand how Steve could have doubted her. As it stood though with the divided lines Thor would not enter the fight between the two sides and would instead stay neutral. From there the other male had went to see Jane Foster.  

Then Pepper mentioned something that completely surprised both Tony and Bruce. Charles Xavier wasn’t only housing runaway Avengers but also had under X-Men Immunity two notorious Mutants. Raven Darkholme and Erik Lehnsherr. How the hell the man pulled that off Tony had no idea, but he assumed that it had something to do with his telepathic powers. And to think both of them were professors, it just threw Tony for a loop. Pepper even hinted at the fact that she thought Xavier and Lehnsherr were together!

From there it was all mostly gossip, which from Bruce’s face, he found to be amusing. Most of the X-Men had no formal schooling. Ororo was from Egypt and had lived on the streets most of her life, Kurt was a blank for Pepper seeing as the male spent most of his time with Pete, who she swore had a thing for the Blue-skinned mutant. Peter used to attend school before his powers made him too hyper to sit still for such things. So those three, Ororo, Peter, and Kurt were often stuck learning the things they had missed out on in online classes. It helped that each one was extremely smart and fast learners. Everyone had even started calling Spidey Pete, and Quicksilver Peter to stop the confusion between the two. 

Steve is said to have come by and offered up an apology. Saying he had done what he had because as leader he had to look out for the team as a whole, not just an individual ex-member. It hurt to know Tony, in Steve's eyes, had always been an ‘ex-member’ since Ultron rather than someone on temporary leave. Steve also extended readmission into the Avengers to everyone, but the others had declined it, they had never seen Tony as an outsider, as an ‘ex-member’. Natasha got to talk to Clint and they were once again on speaking terms, he’d only gone against her for the sake of his family. She would never fault him for that especially since he’d held back while fighting them. Wanda had also made an appearance with Steve. Needless to say Vision had forgiven her. But was not interested in anything romantic until she grew up more and maybe even then probably not.

Pepper also mentioned the fact the T’Challa had come by not long after the Fight at the Airplane Hanger to return a necklace he found. It was an Adinkra symbol, something his people took serious and  **had** to be returned. Turned out to be Storm’s who had quickly gotten along with T’Challa, and now Black Panther came by weekly just to see her. Pepper of course mentioned how she had walked in on them kissing once and hadn’t known how to feel about that thinking Storm was barely twenty and T’Challa was at least thirty. Only to find out that most of the X-Men were older than they looked. 

Storm was twenty-five! Kurt, from Storms thoughts, was well over thirty! While Jean, Scott, and Peter were twenty-two! Hank McCoy, or Beast as he was codenamed, had explained in simply terms that many Mutants aged at a slower rate because of the change in their DNA. It was the reason Charles was well over fifty and looked like he was in his early thirties. 

Tony figured this explained why he looked so young when he was fresh faced. But what struck him was Kurt's age. Tony couldn’t shake from his head how the other looked with a tail and his pointed ears and golden eyes. Demon like. 

Anticipation seemed to settle in Tony’s bones, and he knows without a doubt, that he had to speak to Kurt Wagner. 

* * *

When Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters, or XSGY, comes into view Tony can’t help but raise an eyebrow.

“Okay where exactly do we land this thing?”

And the moment the question leaves his mouth the basketball court suddenly opens upward. Underneath is a hanger.

“Okay I admit, that fucking cool”

Bruce and Pepper are both laughing as Tony says this from the front window pressing his face against it. His eyes scan the manor as they land, looking beyond the quinjet and seeing  _ everything _ .

‘Holy crap that thing is gorgeous’

Not only did Tony see the electricity and technology but he could literally see the power behind the sphere of energy he looked at. Watched as it called out to him with reds, golds, and blues. Tony had never seen energy so diversified, all the colors threatened to overwhelm him, the information on the machine running across his mind almost too quick for him to grasp. It was beyond anything he had ever seen, ever created, or more like dared to create. Because if something like this fell into the wrong hands, it would be catastrophic. 

‘Ah, I see you’ve found Cerebro. Such an interesting Mutation you have Mr. Stark. Why don’t you come upstairs, your friends and I are waiting on you’

Tony jerked back into focus and flinched. Bruce who stood in front of him obviously trying to catch his attention furrowed his brows in concern. 

‘Fucking hell, telepaths’

Was Tony’s immediate thought and he swore he heard a distant laugh in his brain but he couldn’t be sure. 

“You okay Tones, you zoned out on us there”

Bruce spoke this while cupping Tony's face gently. Tony leaned into the action briefly before pushing the other male away so he could move. 

“I’m fine, just got assault by the resident Headmaster. Telepaths Brucie, unnerving shit darling”

Bruce smiled at this and shook his head leading the way off the jet. Pepper was waiting for them as the exited before turning around and leading the way out. Though not before Tony did a lap around the actual Blackbird looking at all the information that flowed from it. 

The elevator ride up was silent and when they entered the hallway Tony almost expected to be overrun with students. Instead it was empty.

“Their in classes still, though not for long. Let's move before that happens”

Pepper briskly headed down the hallway Tony and Bruce not far behind. Turning a few corners Tony couldn’t help but smile because the X-Mansion reminded him of Stark Manor. It brought back pleasant memories of his mother. 

Entering a door they were meet with a conference room of sorts, inside was a male in a wheelchair. Tony couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the tweed suit and oxford shoes. But who was he to judge he practically looked like a hobo currently. 

“Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner I presume. Very nice to make your acquaintance. I am Charles Xavier.” 

Tony opened his mouth to question this, because the guy looked like he wasn’t a day over thirty even with the cue ball head. But he closed it again remembering what Pepper had said on the jet earlier.

Pepper lead them inside as Bruce shut the door. Tony being himself took a seat at the head of the table across from Xavier a slow smile coming on his face. 

“Nice british accent you got there Xavier. Must make all the girls swoon”

‘And drop their panties’

He added the last part mentally projecting it outwards towards the other male. In return Xavier face gave a light blush and a burst of laughter. One that shook his whole body. 

“Oh I don’t know about that Stark, I’ve not attempted to court a lady in some time. And please call me Charles”

‘And I’ve not nearly caused as many females to drop anything as much as you have’

Charles spoke this after his laughter had settled and when Tony heard the others voice in his head he couldn’t help but grin. It wasn’t so bad after all.

“Then by all means call me Tony, Mr. Stark was my stuffy old man”

Pepper and Bruce sat to Tony’s right side with Bruce being the closest. Pepper looked at Tony suspiciously obviously knowing something else was being said but not heard. 

“And please call me Bruce, you have been a valuable ally these past few months. I see no reason for formalities among friends”

Bruce said this smiling at Charles who turned his attention from one genius to the other. For a moment the telepath seemed to stare at Bruce before confusion settled on his face. 

“Fascinating”

Charles muttered this out loud before bring two of his finger to his temple. Pepper made a surprised noise at this, she obviously knew what the fingers meant, Tony was just confused. Bruce suddenly fliched as if hit by something. 

“My apologies. My name extends to you also Bruce. And if I may be so bold as to ask but are you a mutant by chance? Maybe a Feral of some kind? I find myself asking because your thoughts are hard to grasp. Tony has some static and overpowering amounts of data in his thoughts requiring more focus and even then it's hard unless he’s purposely projecting. But yours seem to be two completely different people. And the one a the forefront is more instinctive in nature like someone else I know which covers your own human thoughts. A trait most found in Ferals. Mutants that lean more toward animal like tendencies though they typically have physical mutations of the animal group and you seem to house none of that…”

Charles trials off at this removing his fingers a look of utter concentration on his face as he thought this through. 

“Er, you're probably hearing the Hulk. I think he felt you too. Started throwing a riot in my head just now”

Bruce rubs his forehead at this before sitting back in his chair, relaxed. 

“And from what I know, no I’m not a Mutant. I don’t have the X-gene. Gamma radiation altered that gene for me, before the radiation, I couldn’t tell you. I never thought of it”

A look of curiosity has crossed Bruce's face now. 

“Ferals Mutants always give birth to other Ferals. If either of you parents were one, it is likely you were before the radiation, which might have altered the gene”

When Charles says this Bruce suddenly turns to Tony a look utter astonishment on his face and also dread. Tony had seen this look before and is already thinking what Bruce is. 

‘His mother was a Mutant. It is not common knowledge however. He’d like to keep it that way. She killed her husband when Bruce was young when she found out he was beating her son. Much like an animal, to the point where they thought it was an animal attack. She died not long after they separated her from Bruce, she could not handle not being near him. Suicide.’

Tony projects this to Xavier sadly knowing the Bruce wants to tell the other male, but being unable and unwilling to relive it all. Tony gives the short and concise version. Not wanting to think of the night Bruce told him about his past. Somethings are better left buried. 

“Ah, it matters not. Ignore my inquires. I am just a nosy old man”

‘I am sorry to hear this. Many Ferals are territorial, and very attached to offspring. She likely snapped as is prone to happen when an animal side is involved. I only ask because if he has not tested before or is unaware some male Ferals can become pregnant’

When Charles words in his head sinks in Tony is completely shocked to silence. Literally all thought processes stop working. 

‘What the actual fuck’

Is Tony's immediate first thought and Bruce suddenly kicks him under the table gaining his attention. His look of concern and the slightest bit amused is what Tony sees and the billionaire can’t help but wonder if Bruce  _ knows _ . But before Tony can even convey with his face what he’s feeling the door to the room opens. 

Turning, Tony watches as the Ex-Avengers and the X-Men file in together. All of them are in civilian clothes which is so different from how Tony had seen them last. In the streets of Tokyo, Japan hunting down Kira Gang Members. 

Tony couldn’t help himself, he stood up and hugged the nearest Ex-Avenger, which happened to be Vision. The other male didn’t hesitate in returning the hug.

“Group Hug Guys!”

Tony called out to the others who laughed and soon he was surrounded by all the Ex-Avengers. Tony would cry if he wasn’t too worried about coming off as too much of a punk in front of everyone. Though the moment he felt Bruce affectionately tug his too long hair, it was a near thing. As it stands though, Tony contained himself. 

Slowly each person pulled back and Tony turned to see the X-Men sitting on the left side of the table. His eyes lingered on three extra people in the room, two of which he recognized from some years ago on tv. Magneto and Mystique. Tony wouldn’t judge, they didn’t look threatening sitting there in civvies. But he also knew looks could be deceiving. He’d trust Charles on this. The other male was who he didn't know was very tall and skinny with glasses. Tony wondered if this perhaps was Hank McCoy.

Tony took a seat at the head of the table again while the others individually shared a brief hug with Bruce who they hadn’t seen in quite some time. 

“Okay, I’m glad to see everyone settled. I’m hoping this won’t be long. I figured we’d get a general direction of where to go from here”

Charles said this with a smile and folded his arms in front of him on the table. Erik, who was closest to Charles, looked at the male with a fondly exasperated face. Tony figured the whimsical nature of the telepath was normal. 

“I came back to mostly calm everyone's nerves and to give Pepper a computer with new SI things. But I’m actually heading back out. I have family business to attend to in Germany”

Tony says this glancing at his side of the table. None of the other look disappointed just vaguely curious about what Tony is speaking on. Erik though seems more than interested in what Tony is going to do in Germany. But he doesn’t seem inclined to ask abo-

“Family? You mean Maria’s side of the family?”

Charles is obviously intrigued by this, Tony remembers her mother mentioning that he knew about Wolff Gang but not about his twin. Tony is not interested in telling him, at least not in front of everyone, and especially not with Kurt in the room who he has a burning need to ask deeply personal questions about. 

“Yes, Wolff Gang. They haven’t contacted me but my mother was animate that it would happen, and I’d like to handle it before it possibly gets out of control”

Tony says this looking Charles in the eyes also conveying there is more to it, but without actually telling him what it is. Charles seems to understand this immediately.

“Volff Gang?”

A german accent mutters from the X-Men side of the room. Tony turns and sees Nightcrawler with furrowed brows and a look of utter concentration on his face before he shakes his head. 

“That name sounds familiar”

Kurt looks to Charles when he says this but it is not him who answers.

“It should for any German citizen who knows even a little bit of their history. They were a nazi killing group during WWII. They brought more people to a bloody justice than any governmental system could. Beheld as heros among most Jewish families, even those who were not in Germany. Later on they began helping Mutants and proudly handled those who even thought to lay a hand on one. They had a split though and a war went on between the two groups of the Wolff Gang. Afterwards they disappeared, though some say they are still around just taking care of things in an underground type of network. You should be proud Mr. Stark, to be family of such heros”

Erik says the history of the Wolff Gang as if it is something to be honored and revered. He has this almost smile on his face and his eyes get this great determination in them like he’s daring someone to say otherwise about the Wolff Gang being heros. Kurt for the most part seemed to take Eriks explanation easily and without issue, nodding his head. 

“My mother was not to fond of her family, but I will not undermine the good that they have done simply because of bad blood in family. So thank you Mr. Lehnsherr”

Tony says this easily without any fuss. He knows his mother has a singular view of the Wolff Gang, but they are also known for freeing whole internment camps of Jews. They saved lives and even if his granduncle and uncle were douchebags doesn’t mean he’s gonna not honor all the things they had done that were good. 

Erik seems impressed by this response and nods his head. 

“Call me Erik. I have worked closely with your friends this past year and I will extend to you the same courtesy as I do them”

Tony gives the male a smile at this. 

“Erik then and please call me Tony. That goes for all of you. I would not be sitting here if it wasn’t for your help”

He makes eye contact with each of the mutants, smiling.

Charles then claps his hands together a joyous expression on his face. 

“My friend, this is marvelous. That we may get along so well only shows that positive Mutant and Human Relations are on the rise. And since it is settled that you will only be staying a few days I’m assuming your comrades may stay here and continuing teaching? And when you finish in Germany we shall be here waiting for you. A well laid plan indeed”

Tony can’t help but return the grin that the other male sends. 

“Aww no worries Charles I’m not gonna deprive you of staff members”

Tony teases the telepath who begins laughing, it is a sound that causes Erik to actually smile and Tony belatedly thinks of a shark just looking at the other male. 

“Now if it’s not too much trouble I’d like to speak with you and the others in private”

Tony says this after the other male has stopped laughing. Before Charles even begins to dismiss the X-Men they're already standing up and making their way out the door. Raven and Erik at the last to leave hovering at the threshold, but Charles gives a nod and smile sending them off with the door closed behind them. 

All eyes turn to Tony and the billionaire genius simply pulls the envelope from his pocket. He slides it across the table to Charles who easily catches it lifting it up curiously. 

“Are you able to read it in you head and project it to the everyone here? Its family information and I’d rather not be overheard”

Tony doesn’t want to keep any secret between himself and his new family. Even if it means airing out skeletons from his original one. 

Charles nods his head and opens the letter. On the first line his eyes widen and already he knows who this letter is from. 

As he reads it Tony watches the faces of the others. Rhodey is the only one who got to actually meet his parents. Knew how close Maria and Tony had been even after he had began to push her away. He was there at the funeral, had held Tony when he cried after all the cameras had left. 

So when they make eye contact Rhodey looks devastated, likely at the fact that Tony had to go through this alone. The genius smiles at him, wants him to know that he’s okay, he survived it. 

When Charles is finished reading it, after laughing at the last part with the side note of trusting him. He returned the letter to the envelope before sliding it back to Tony. 

“Well now I see why you want to go to Germany. And I also understand why you eyed Kurt so intently”

Charles says this slowly a thoughtful look on his face. 

“I am not one to reveal things of others. But it is not a secret so I will tell you. Kurt suffers from Amnesia. He does not remember much before the age of 29. Including his birthday. He woke up fighting a young man with white hair who had a sword of electricity and got away just in time, likely it was this mutant who caused his memory loss. He was later captured and placed in a circus before being sold to fight in Mutant cage matches, where Raven found and saved him. Hank was able to estimate his age and it would match he is likely 47 this year, his last name Wagner is a variation of Wainwright…” 

Tony begins to grin, to think Arno could be so close! 

“...But I will ask you not to mention it to him until you travel to Germany and make sure. I do not want to tell him one thing, allowing him to think we have found something of his past, only for it to be false”

Tony visibly deflated at this. He understood Charles’ caution, but it didn’t stop him from wanting to run from the room to Kurt. 

“I have see one major inconsistency between you mother's description and Kurt. Skin color. Dark Brown, almost black skin to blue is not a normal change. Kurt's skin tone does lighten and darken based on sunlight, he tans. But a complete shift in color is not plausible in any biological process”

Here Bruce nods

“I also had some doubts. When I saw Kurt I thought to Maria’s letter. And while Tony’s eyes change from Brown to Blue, a change like that happening in skin pigmentation is nearly impossible. It would also not be so thorough over the whole body. Some places would still be brown”

Tony glances at Bruce giving him a betrayed expression.

“Don’t look like that, Kurt has Amnesia bad enough that Charles, a telepath, hasn’t been able to help him recover memories. Thats serious, like someone who doesn’t want to remember”

Bruce and Charles, of course, are right. And Bruce always makes sense which leaves Tony at being the utterly irrational one. 

“Ugh! Okay fine, Germany first”

Tony gives in throwing his hands up in the air and slumping in his chair pouting. He so close to his brother and yet so far. Because if what Charles and Bruce says is right then Arno is still out there. But Tony also knows they can be wrong, all their science is just highly unlikely but not truly impossible as they make it seem. They aren’t the only ones with a PhD.

Suddenly the door behind them slams open hitting the wall and squeaking dangerously on its hinges. Charles’ face has taken on this extremely amused look and Tony is just confused. 

He turns his chair around and when he sees who it is, he can’t help but jump up. 

Reaching forward and pulling the other into a hug, the tears he tried to contain earlier seems to just pour out without Tony even knowing. 

“ **_Harley_ ** ”

Is all he can whisper as the two sink to the floor sobbing into each others shirts. 


	5. Family Matters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony jumps slightly and looks at the other male, it's the first thing he’s said since he’s introduced himself. Zachariah heads to the back of the house before opening a door that is hidden from view of the front door by a well-placed bookshelf. Opening it Tony hears what sounds like a heart monitor. The beeps faint and infrequent.  
> “He's here like Andrew said he would be”  
> Zach says this in a voice of indifference before stepping into the room and clearing the view for a shorter Tony to see into the room.  
> A hospital bed with machines and scanners sit against the far wall and the man on the bed is small. Thin in an almost unnatural way that no one should be. But Tony recognizes him almost, like a distant memory of a once strong man, he looked like Tony's mother.  
> “Uncle…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot bunnies
> 
> HEY GUYS! This is a whole lifetime late. Sorry about that. I'm in college and things kind of go by fast and you forget. But my goal from now on is to write a little bit every weekend and hopefully have a full story by the end of the month. Anyways those that stuck around thanks and those that are new please don't disappear. My goal this year is to finish this story but not to rush the story. Gotta let it flow!

The smell of wet Earth greets him. Leaves and grass crumble under his feet and the storm clouds overhead part to allow the sun to break through. The small area is buzzing with life as bugs come from their hidden homes and join in a cacophony of white noise. The song of Nature.

            Glancing up the tree branches overhead seem to reach out endlessly swallowing the blue skin that peeks through clouds. Sticky skin, the humidity causing water to cling to him. He remembers being here, hearing the story of what happened.

            He looks down at the ground beneath the tree, once small now bigger than any in the area. Here sits Deaths golden medal of triumph.

“Anthony Edward Stark, I wonder what will you say when you find out”

            The words are spoken quietly almost a whisper as if not to disturb the family resting here. When the male turns he casts a deep shadow across the unsoiled ground and walks away. His Blue Eyes flashing with the deepest sorrow known to men.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anthony is almost ready to pull his hair out and throw the world's biggest tantrum. Except for the fact that he is an adult and thus must act accordingly to what is required of such status even if those around him are eyeing him like they expect nothing less of him.

“Okay fuck this adulting shit, why the hell didn’t you tell me, Pepper?!”

Tony's voice is a whip, cracking through the air to display his displeasure at the news he just found out. But even as the question leaves his mouth, he already knows her answer.

“Because I could handle it, and I didn’t want you to feel the need to come back before your charges were fully dropped”

Pepper has always been the level-headed one. Tone clipped and short, expression while regretful is also resolute. She believes what she did was right, knows Tony would have stormed back at even the slightest change in anything to do with Harley. While she is sad he had to be the last to know, she will also not apologize for keeping Tony’s safe. It's one thing she’ll never be sorry about.

Tony whispers a curse word and looks away from the woman. To think just yesterday he’d been with Harley catching up and having fun. Learning all the inventions that the kid had come up with. Only for the young teen to get so excited that electricity, blue and as bright as both their eyes, had bolted out of him and hit a wall. The billionaire had assumed that Harley was at the X-Mansion because he had wanted to see Tony, now he is being told that Harley attended the school. And to think he hadn’t noticed the Blue Eyes, but he supposed that could be excused, Harley had always had Blue Eyes.

In a room with Pepper the next day, Tony paces back and forth while Harley is in class learning from Magneto!

Harley wasn’t a Mutant, he couldn’t be. He’d never showed the signs and neither of his parents were Mutants from what they knew.

“Fuck, his _parents._ Does his mom know, Sarah, deserves to know the truth”

Tony turns to Pepper when he says this. Sarah Keener had worked so hard the past few years. She had been so depressed since her husband had left, hadn’t done much of anything but work in a diner down the street from the Keener residence and get drunk enough to pass out at night. But Tony had got the woman back on her feet, she cleaned herself off and actually used the Master's degree she had in English to become an online professor and a children's author.

The woman was brilliant once you were able to look past the booze, she had only needed a stern talking to and a firm hand to get her together. Tony and Pepper liked to think of the woman as a pet project back during the bad days. But as time went on Tony began to see her as a friend of sorts, he loved her son like his own, how could he not see the bright woman as a friend?

“Tony there's a lot about Harley I need to tell you. It's better to start from the beginning I’m sure. Please sit **_down_** ”

Pepper says this firmly pointing sharply to the seat next to hers. The two armchairs are in one of the study rooms in the school, the door is locked and the chairs are slanted to face the fireplace.

Her look is pointed, she will say nothing else until he has taken a seat. So Tony sits, gripping the armrests in tight hands.

“When you left the country maybe a month or two later Harley started showing signs of Mutation. He short-circuited the equipment attached to him and doctors couldn’t touch him without their arms going severely numb. But he healed at an expedited rate, by the end of two months his wound was gone with no scar in its place. He was asleep, or in a coma for another month before he woke up…”

Pepper trailed off her hands, that had been clasped in her lap, rubbed together nervously before she took a breath and straightened her back her face carefully neutral. She’d been spending time with Natasha.

“He woke up blind-”

Tony is up out of his seat with fist clenched and once again pacing back and forth. Months of having to keep his powers in check mean he’s not sparking with electricity, but it's a near thing at this point.

“Pepper what the fuck-”

“MR. STARK I WILL NOT ASK YOU AGAIN, SIT **_DOWN!_** _And. Do. Not. Interrupt._ ”

Tony is shocked enough to follow what she says and takes a seat quickly. He has never seen Pepper quite so frazzled, her nerves fried. What happened, what she is telling him is not easy for her. There is bad news coming.

“Thank you. Now as I was saying, he was blind when he woke up, but it lasted only another month before that too disappeared. I called in Xavier and Hank, they took samples before concluding that it was simply another form of his mutation. Charles was able to help Harley control it along with the electrical discharge. Hank concluded that there was some form of mutagenic occurrence between Harley and you. He likely had a low-level version of the X-gene that wouldn’t have manifested but you were shot too and a transference of blood took place. You mutant gene-altered and combined with his X-gene. It's a one in a trillion happenstance. Harley and you were compatible like sometimes families are, but even then rare even in twins. The child's original mutation, if his X-gene had developed would have been like binocular sharpshooter eyes. Like zooming in and being able to aim and hit any target. Harley never misses Tony, with anything”

Tony is dismayed by this news, despite what people will say, let it not be confused on whether Tony was happy or not. He wasn’t.

“Oh God, I made him a pariah”

Pepper’s lips thin at this and she furrows her brows. This is the look she gives Tony when she thinks he has said something particularly stupid.

“He was always like that Tony, too smart for his age. Just like you, the difference is he has us as his family and if we cannot accept the gift of him being alive for the good that it is, then we might as well have killed him ourselves”

Pepper is right, she always is. Even after all this time Tony still has reluctance with accepting what he is. Still doesn’t know how life can be anything but a horrible game of facades when you're a mutant. But Pep is right, Harley is alive and at the end of the day that is what matters most.

“Okay, right. He’s alive. My blood helped him survive. What did Sarah say?”

At this a distant look seems to take over Peppers face, she looks resigned and heavy like the world sits upon her shoulders. Tony feels a ball of emotion fill his chest.

“Sarah was killed not too long after you left. It was deemed a break in, but Black Widow found information on a hit on her head. We didn’t know why at the time, but now we do…”

Pepper stops talking as she sees Tony freeze, his gaze empty. Inside the genius feels hollow, like someone has torn something out of him that was essential and decided not to return it.

Sarah Keener was dead.

Harley’s mother had been murdered.

A hit had been placed on her head, likely Hydra.

**_But why!?_ **

“What did Black Widow find out?”

Tony's question is deathly quiet, and if it wasn’t for the utter silence in the room Pepper might not have heard it at all.

“We found Harley’s father” she pauses and turns her body to fully face Tony in the chair. “Emil Weber-Keener, he was in the morgue of the same hospital as Harley. Tony. Harley’s father was a KamiKaze Gunman, the German among the group”

This is said slowly like she fears getting it wrong. She speaks softly and when she is finished the air itself seems to go still with grief.

“Harley’s own father _shot_ him? Oh fuck, and they killed Sarah likely because of a failed job. Or maybe because none of the Gunmen were supposed to have families”, the hollow feeling expands, “does Harley _know_ ”

Pepper turns and faces the unlit fireplace before slumping in an unladylike fashion.

“Yes, his father shot him. Yes, he knows and has been told the whole story. We thought it best he knows just in case a hit was put out on him, but after the Jin Comp. hack Hydra has been silent. But Tony, Emil was a mutant. A sharpshooter that never missed, when he shot Harley he aimed for empty cavity space. Didn’t hit any vital organs or-”

“ **NO! NO! NO!** You do not get to make excuses and shit for someone who would ever shoot their own child!”

Tony cut the woman off anger and hurt filling him.

“I was there Pepper. I was _there_! I watched as the person I considered my son bleed out on the fucking floor. I saw the bullet go through his body! And that **_MAN_** stood there and gloated about it like it was an accomplishment! I-”

“Yes, Tony but it went completely through Harley!! Don’t you see? When it didn’t hit an organ it kept going, giving a clean wound that could easily be stitched back up! He was being watched, Tony! He had to make it believable! He was trying to save their lives! He-”

“He was wrong, what his intentions were, does not make it right what he did Pepper-”

“DO NOT LECTURE ME ON WHAT IS RIGHT STARK! ULTRON WAS MADE WITH MANY GOOD INTENTIONS IN MIND!”

Tony recoiled as if physically struck. Shock evident in wide eyes. Pepper had never directly mentioned Ultron before, had instead glided over the topic. And she was right. Ultron was made with good intentions in mind and Tony could never call someone else wrong for doing what they had to, to keep others safe. But he could not get the image of Harley bleeding out on that floor out of his head. Would never forget how cold the child had gotten. Emil had worried about his family first, it was something they had in common. Even if Tony did not agree with his methods.

Though Tony supposed at the end of the day perhaps Emil was the better man in the end. He was willing to get his hands dirty for his family. Tony only created things so he wouldn’t have to get into the filthy. He felt as though he had never truly sacrificed all of himself for anything. Always his body, his life but never his soul and mind.

Silence had stretched for so long that Peppers face began morphing into one of guilt and regret.

“Tony, I’m Sor-”

“You’re right”

Shock crossed the woman's face and she blinked rapidly.

“I can’t judge Emil, we all do things and make mistakes for those we love. Sometimes we hurt them when we mean not to and sometimes we love them too hard, too much, all at once and end up pushing them away. So consumed by our love for them that we forget to see them as themselves and not the love we feel. In love with being in love. I cannot say if Emil fell into one of these categories, but either way, he was Harley’s father and he did what he felt was best in the end. And I should never and will never begrudge someone who did the best they could”

When Tony finishes, Pepper slowly smiles. It is a sad and shriveled thing but a smile nonetheless, one that Tony returns to her.

“You’ve changed. Grown just a little bit. I wonder who had a hand in that”, a sly smile crossed her face slowly, “Bruce Banner perhaps? Pretty cozy you two. Sleeping in the same room last night and all”

Tony was not a blushing virgin or anything, and Pepper knew it. Just like he knew a change in conversation when he heard one. While his chest still felt hollow and gored out from the news he had heard he still could help the stupid grin and blush the lite up his face at Bruce's name. Pepper actually looked surprised by it. Tony couldn’t blame her, he was thrown off when he felt the blood rushing to his face suddenly.

“We- er. We're not dating or anything, but I did kiss him. Once.”

Peppers eyebrows shoot up at this and confusion crosses her face.

“Uh, Tony I hate to point this out and all. But your caution is probably not needed, guys heads over heels for you. The only reason he won’t make the first move is likely because he has his whole deluded notion that no one wants to be with the Hulk. Not that I’m gonna tell you how to run your life but maybe hop on that”

Tony couldn’t help himself, he burst out laughing. Pepper was actually promoting a relationship?! There was a first for everything Tony supposed.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll get right on that Pep”

He mutters and leans back in his chair. Pepper does much the same and then they give a sigh of breath together going boneless.

“Also I set it up so that Harley is now your adopted son. Congrats and you’re welcome”

Tony shot up at this, eyes wide with utter disbelief.

“ ** _WHAT?!_** ”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

            “Old Man! How's it going!”

            Tony had never wanted to strangle someone so much in his life like he did right now to Harley. Ever since finding out Pepper had made Tony his legal guardian the brat had made sure to call Tony ‘Old Man’ as often as possible.

            “Call me that again brat and I just might _demonstrate_ my powers on your hair”

            Harley's hands covered his hair quickly, honestly Tony had no idea when the teen had gotten so attached to styling it but Tony figured it had something to do with a female/male and puppy love.

            ‘I’ll have to have the **_TALK_** with him’

            As Tony thought this he couldn’t help putting his head in his hands. The sunny warm weather he had been enjoying outside by himself under a wide tree suddenly seemed like it was mocking him. Harley not noticing the change in demeanor sat down on the bench next to Tony under the tree.

            “So can I call Bruce and Vision old men too, since you guys are dating?”

            At this Tony snatches his hands away and completely forgets about the turmoil he was just experiencing.

            “ ** _WHAT!?_** ”

            Tony choked on his own spit and actually started coughing like he couldn’t breathe. The surprise was written all over his face.

            “Oh, sorry. Was it suppose to be a secret? Well, Bruce and you share a room, I’m sure Vision would share it too if he actually slept like a normal person. But then again Vision is always cooking special things for Bruce and you and cleaning your things and generally following one of you when he’s not busy. So honestly he’s not hiding it very well. Bruce and you are… well science boyfriends and do just about everything together anyway. So how exactly does a three-way relationship work out? Like who tops who and does anyone get jealous of the other and how exactly do you resolve conflicts without taking sides when two of you are arguing?”

            Harley says all this matter of factly not at all put off by the possibility of Tony being in a threesome relationship. But when he turns to look at the billionaire the teen pauses slightly before furrowing his brows. Tony is pale and wide-eyed with his jaw hanging open in utter disbelief.

            Vision had been very helpful since Tony and Bruce had returned to civilization, especially with helping them understand the schedule of the school and when was a good time to wash clothes, who washed dishes at what time, who cooked what for the students, where to find the private kitchen for the adults, etc. But Tony hadn’t noticed how much he followed Bruce and him around offering commentary in conversation or extra information on an experiment. He’d even invited them to help teach his classes, which they did on multiple occasions these past two weeks.

            “Wait a second, you aren’t dating them, are you? How the hell!? Tony I literally saw them kissing a few minutes ago in the lab before I found you out here-”

Harley didn’t even finish his sentence before Tony is standing and taking off across the lawn. Because he knew Harley wasn’t lying. Bruce had something he wanted to check out involving his genes. He’d been testing to see if Charles was right about him possessing the X-gene and after Tony had mentioned the pregnancy thing to the other male he’d become curious. Bruce had never been checked for a womb or anything dealing with children, he had never had a ‘period’ either, so the genius had figured Tony and Charles were wrong.

At least until Hank had explained that Feral Males had very precise control of their body functions, and didn’t release an egg until they wanted to be pregnant. Thus bleeding would not happen unless they wanted a baby and if the egg was left unfertilized. Then came the explanation of C-section births and how long pregnancy lasted, 7 months instead of the standard 9, because Ferals grew and matured faster than average children. In the end, Bruce had asked for a way to test his genes and Hank had told him how. Vision had only offered to help and Tony, never liking completely biological based experiments, had simply backed out and left.

To think that Bruce and Vision could be together and Tony knew nothing about it. That he was just getting in the way of them having each other. But when would it have happened?! Not when Vision had called Bruce on the STARK-PHONE. And the two barely got the chance to know each other before Bruce had left after Ultron. The last two weeks they had spent a lot of alone time together and both of them were logical human beings or android-human beings in Visions case, maybe they had thought being together was logical and an all around a good idea. But what really struck Tony in the heart was one thing.

‘Why didn’t they just tell me?’

Tony knew he could be a drama queen, but he always treated those he loved with the utmost respect. And Bruce and Vision were at the top of that list. After Vision had given that speech at the airport he had gone from simple friend status to best friend. Over the two weeks, that title had only cemented in Tony’s mind as he began to share things with the Android that only Edwin and Bruce knew. And Bruce had always been his science bro, they shared everything with each other. But to go behind Tony’s back and just start dating, it seemed like a betrayal of the highest sense.

Coming to a stop outside the lab that Hank had given Bruce and Tony to use, the genius couldn’t help but rethink his words. Maybe he was wrong, maybe it wasn’t his business. Even if the three of them shared intimate secrets with each other, it wouldn’t matter. It wasn’t truly his decision to decide what the other two told him or not. He was acting like a brat like he was entitled to know. But maybe he wasn’t. Breathing heavy, from running all the way here from the backyard of the Mansion Tony rethought what he almost had done.

Instead of bursting into the room and demanding answers, he cracked the door open and froze. What he saw broke his heart into a million different pieces. To hear it was one thing, but to see it with his own eyes was something completely different. Harley had been right, where he was standing at the door watching Bruce hold Vision to the wall and thoroughly take the android apart with kisses and his hands.

‘That's got to be the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in my life’

Tony thought this even as it made him want to cry. His emotions wanted to shrivel up and sob but his body wanted to walk over and push against Bruce’s back to have him stuck in the middle. It was a tangle of body vs emotions and at the end of it his mind was the deciding factor.

‘If they wanted me involved, they would have said something’

Tony closes the door silently and hands to Bruce and his room. He then begins to pack.

By the time he’s done he’s gotten Edwin to order a plane ticket and packed up a duffle bag. He’s going to use his alias James Steele Martin in Germany. He’d even shaved his face clean again and other than getting his hair shaped nicely he’d kept it shoulder length. The plan had been for Bruce to come with Tony to Germany to look for Arno. But this was better, Bruce and Vision deserved each other and Tony refused to be the idiot that broke them up.

Tony had even left a note for Bruce explaining that something had come up about Arno and he was heading out immediately, no need for the other to follow. Tony didn’t need Bruce, he never had. At the end of the day, Tony had simply wanted Bruce to be there, had wanted a friend. But Tony was used to being alone, he never _NEEDED_ anyone.

Heading out the front doors Tony isn’t surprised to see Natasha and Charles waiting for him outside.

“Leaving already Tony”

Natasha says this fondly and crosses her arms with a smirk. Tony only shakes his head at the woman and pulls her into a hug.

“I’ll be back soon Nat, don’t you worry. Keep an eye on Harley for me while I’m gone-”

He’s cut off by a body hitting his side in a hug making him drop his bag to stop from tipping over. Glancing down Tony sees neatly done brown hair and immediately knows it, Harley.

“Tony, I’m sorry I didn’t mean what I said don’t leave”

Tony is almost tempted to say yes to this, to take his bag to a different room and stay where he is just for Harley. But he can’t, Tony has only just realized that the two weeks he’d been at the X-Mansion, he’s wasted. Hasn’t done anything but lay around, tinker with the suit and his powers, and teach a few classes. He’d been so comfortable where he was that he forgot about Arno, his brother possibly lost in the world without someone to watch his back.

“This is not about Bruce and Viz, Harley. This is about Arno and my duty as a brother to find him. At the end of the day, they might be the cause for the abruptness of my leaving but they are not the reason for my leaving, Arno is. I must find him”

Tony has never sugar coated anything he’s told, Harley. It is an agreement they’ve had since the moment they became family. He would tell Harley the truth of every situation no matter how painful.

“Let me come too”

Tony had known this was coming, it’s one of the reasons Tony had planned to leave at night before all that was thrown away at seeing Bruce and Vision together.

“You can’t, I’m not even taking Bruce with me anymore. This is an old family matter, I need to do it alone. But if I need help you’ll be the first to know”

Tony ruffles the boy's hair and gets a squawk of indignation as the teen pulls away and fixes what Tony has messed up.

“Fine, but I’m totally telling Bruce and Vision you saw them kissing”

Tony is not surprised by this, Harley couldn’t hold a secret in unless a life was at risk or if it was something deeply personal. But to him, everything else was given away.

“Brat”

“Old Man”

They smile at each other before Harley turns and enters the house. Charles begins to follow and pauses briefly looking over his shoulders with a twinkle in his eyes and a tinge of sorrow.

“I do hope you find what and who you are looking for Tony. A sibling is an entity of great happiness and a bringer of the greatest sorrows”

Charles then smiles brightly and closes the door behind him leaving Tony alone with Natasha.

“How are you getting to the airport?”

Natasha questions him as soon as the door closes. It takes Tony a minute to process the question considering he’s still stuck on the fact that Charles just gave him the most cryptic message Tony has ever received in his life.

“I.. er.. I was going to fly until I got somewhere I can hail a cab for the rest of the way”

Tony says this nervously as Black Widow eyes him. She nods at his words slowly.

“Flashy. Upgraded the stealth on the suit? Cause you’ll draw a lot of attention otherwise”

Tony knows this, it's how he made the suit to be originally. He wanted it flashy because honestly, Tony had never been a sneaky person in his life. He figured if he couldn’t sneak then he’d just surprise.

“When was the last time you actually used the suit. You're more attached to you Mutant powers now than anything”

A look of curiosity flashes across Natasha's face before disappearing. She is once again blank but Tony knows she’s already thinking over every possible answer he would give. Most of them being evasive, just because he didn’t like giving too much information on the suit away. The genius decides to surprise the Russian for once.

“The suit upgrades everytime my powers grow but yes, one such upgrade was a stealth system much like the helicarrier could go invisible so can I, though it does require a lot of power. And the last time I actually used to suit for combat was well over a year ago. I haven’t really looked at it fully with all the armor on, but the coloring is different too. It reflects my powers and has this silver paint job now” (Look up Superior Ironman for new suit)

Natasha raises an eyebrow at his answer, the only indication that she's actually shocked by how much she’s gotten from Tony. But then she nods, she understands this is Tony’s way of saying that he trusts her. That she’s family now and deserves the truth.

“Good, but you won’t need it. I’m driving you”

Natasha holds up some car keys a smirk crossing her face and Tony can’t help the nervous laugh he gives. He was going to die before he got to the airport, the Russian drove every car like she was fleeing a crime scene.

“I could drive instead-”

“No”

“But you don’t even have a **_real_** license!”

“Get in the car Tony or you’ll miss your flight”

Needless to say, Tony does get in the car and almost dies three times on the way to the airport, significantly less than normal.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Tony exits the plane he can’t help but begin to regret his decision to bring company with him. In the vast airport in Germany, Tony feels the gnawing emotion of regret and lonely start to creep up on him. In this emptiness, he grabs his luggage and can’t help the surprise when he turns and sees a man holding a sign with his fake name on it. Though under the black writing of James Steele is the name ‘Tony’ in parentheses. The man holding it is lazily waving the thing in the air and his body is covered from head to toe in black, face covered by a hood, with a mask over the bottom of his face, and goggles over his eyes. No distinguishing factors at all and Tony can’t help but worry. Had someone known he was coming? His family perhaps, but Tony had made sure to cover his tracks on top of Natasha being the one to create the fake identity, there was no way anyone could have found him.

Yet here this man stands with a sign in his hand, flaunting the fact that he does know James Steele to be Tony Stark.

Tony eyes the male warily and doesn’t make a move to approach him, instead, he reaches out with his powers and creates a line to the X-Mansion just in case things get sketchy. It's here that Tony notices something.

‘He’s a Mutant’

The shock at this gives Tony pause, while Mutants are quite common now, it was this Mutants nervous system and the reading Tony was getting off him that made the genius nervous.

‘His powers are the same as mines’

A ball of power sits in the man chest condensed where his heart would be, just like Tonys. But the other was better at holding his powers in. More efficient at concealing what he was, his ball of power was smaller than Tony's but more compacted and smooth, not even a ripple on the surface,

Irrational jealous slightly clouded Tony's mind, where could he learn control like that?

The other male, perhaps realizing Tony wasn’t suddenly going to come over to him, suddenly flipped the sign he was holding over to the back. What Tony saw removed all doubt from his brain about who the man was with.

‘A wolf’

The drawing of a wolf stood out on the back of the paper and it didn’t take a scientist to figure out that Tony’s family had not only known he was coming back knew exactly what flight he would arrive on to receive him. Now knowing that the other male wasn’t an enemy, though a friend was the farthest thing from Tony’s mind, he made his way over to him.

The black-clad male looked at Tony when he stood before him and seemed to cock his head in curiosity? It was hard to tell because of the things covering his face, but Tony was quite sure curiosity was the word for what the other felt.

“I am Zachariah Mancer”

Tony is shocked by how deep the other's voice is, more mature than he thought the other male to be even if Tony couldn’t see his face. Standing almost a head taller with broad shoulders, and more noticeable muscles than Tony himself the genius can’t help but pout internally, out of the two of them Tony almost looked like a young adult.

The other male, Zachariah, takes a quick glance up and down of Tony, only making him feel even more self-conscious, by comparison, Tony is not small, but lean and tall built for speed versus brute strength.

Either way, after the once over the other, turns on his heels and begins walking away, Tony watches this confused but stumbles after the other when he realizes the Zachariah at some point had taken Tony's duffle bag with him.

‘How the hell did I not notice that!’

While Tony knew that there was absolutely no way that the Wolff Gang was poor he hadn’t quite figured just how rich they were until he saw the car Zachariah was driving was a Tesla. While the cars weren’t exactly out of Tony budget they definitely screamed rich and upper class.

Of course any questions Tony put forth were ignore by the other male who wore his entire black attire the whole way to…..

A very nice looking house in some Suburbs. Obviously upper-class area, the place where neighbors kept to themselves and didn’t question odd people who wore all Black in the middle of spring.

Entering the house, Tony is almost amused when the front door is unlocked. Inside everything is clean and tidy, the house is beautiful and yet unlived in. No pictures hang on the wall, no books, trinkets, or personal effects of any kind. More like a safehouse then a home.

“This way”

Tony jumps slightly and looks at the other male, it's the first thing he’s said since he’s introduced himself. Zachariah heads to the back of the house before opening a door that is hidden from view of the front door by a well-placed bookshelf. Opening it Tony hears what sounds like a heart monitor. The beeps faint and infrequent.

“He's here like Andrew said he would be”

Zach says this in a voice of indifference before stepping into the room and clearing the view for a shorter Tony to see into the room.

A hospital bed with machines and scanners sit against the far wall and the man on the bed is small. Thin in an almost unnatural way that no one should be. But Tony recognizes him almost, like a distant memory of a once strong man, he looked like Tony's mother.

“Uncle…”

Tonys' voice trails off as the other male eyes him, not a hint of fear or weakness in the eyes of someone bedridden. Zachariah scoffs at this but a sharp cut of the eyes to him instantly has the other male straightening up.

An oxygen mask covers the other male's face and he removes it briefly eyes still locked on Zachariah.

“Remove the costume you're so fond off, show respect for my Nephew”

The mask is placed back on, but not before a coughing fit takes over the older man, his voice a low rasp yet strong in tone when speaking to Zac.

“Same respect he’s shown you, Derek? At least he wasn’t too late”

Zac pulls down his hood and Tony she shocked by the blinding white/silver hair he has. Removing the lower cloth and goggles Tony is shown quite a handsome face even if a scar runs across the side of it. What catches his attention though is not the aristocratic features but the metal he can literally see sticking out the other's head. Tony can see centralized power there but it's static and blurry like looking at something with glasses off.

“Too late for what?”

Tony questions both males trying to get to the topic at hand of what is going on.

“Too late to inherit a legacy, Mr. Stark. Come now you can’t think your Uncle has much longer to live, I know you can see it. His nervous system”

Zac says this with a vicious smile and hard eyes that speak more of pain than amusement. Tony looks to the other man who only gives Zac an annoyed expression and yet tired eyes to his nephew. Tony sees what Zac means, notices how his nervous system is scattered and infrequent and almost painful to look at. It is the system of a man who does not have long to live.

“Cancer, and later HIV”

The man pulls the oxygen masks from his face as he says this his voice reflecting the look he gives Tony.

It is almost ironic that Tony has dreaded this meeting and yet finds himself saddened that it will be cut so short.

“I am dying, have been for a very long time, but I refused to go until I knew you’d be safe in this world. It is the least I can do in memory of my sister”

Derek takes a deep breath under the mask and closes his eyes seemingly savoring the oxygen he gets.

“But you are not here to hear the matters of an old man, this is what you want”

He waved his hand to a USB thumb drive that sits on the side table next to his bed.

“You are the new leader of the Wolff Gang, all the information you want and more is located on this thumb drive. I have lived a long and full life, Tony, it is time for me to join my sister in peace. Zac will fill you in on any other information you need to know. I’m tired Tony, so very tired”

The old man pulls the masks from his face and for the first time Tony notices a button in his hand clutched tightly. Slowly the man pushes it and suddenly all the machines cut off.

“You've grown so much since I last saw you in person, your mother would be proud of the man you became. And thank you Zac, you have helped make this old man's dream come true”

As Derek says this light slowly leaves his eyes. Death enters the room to take the soul she has been delayed in receiving, elongated by methods old and true she is happy to collect what is hers. Though she is disappointed by this death, this man greets her as an old friend, gracefully going into her embrace. Where his sister had sat defiant in the face of Death, Derek smiles warmly and asks what took so long for her to arrive. The difference are shocking and Death watches the last two people in the room and hopes one of them might join her soon.

Zac shifts his weight and Tony, while the other male tries to hide it, knows that the white-haired male is hurting, is holding back sorrow. Tony is at a loss for what to do, someone just died and front of him and made him the leader of a gang.

“What the fuck has my life become”

The genius mutters this to himself and jumps when he hears a watery laugh from Zac.

“Yes I often ask myself the same thing, before Derek, I didn't have much going for myself”

Zac says this fondly thinking of a time before. But waves it off soon after.

“I guess the first thing I should do is thank you. I pledge my loyalty to you. I will never betray you Anthony Edwards Stark, you have my mutation and resources at your disposal, always”

Tony freaks out a little at this and takes a step back finding the blind devotion almost shocking.

“I'm not looking to be leader of any gang, especially not one my mother warned me away from”

Zac frowns at this and laughs suddenly.

“While the name Wolff Gang still stands, it is not really so much of a gang as it is a political power and secret organization. We are not the Wolff Gang of old Tony, while your mother I’m sure was a wonderful woman, she was also not privy to the restructuring of the group. Also regardless of whether you want the responsibility or not, it is yours. Perhaps reevaluate your want to be leader after you have all the facts”

Zac says this in a logical way, and like he finds Tony disagreement to be leader almost cute in a childish way. But Tony also knows he’s not wrong, that without all the facts he is making a decision only off of the words of a dead woman who already had a colored view of a group.

So Tony nods at this and approaches the USB, picking up he realizes that the actual part to insert it into a computer is broken off.

‘How the…’

Tonys thought is cut off by Zac scoffing at him before an amused expression crosses his face.

“You don’t need a computer Tony, and this way is stopped others from learning sensitive information they shouldn’t know”

Once again the logic is sound and Tony nods at this, grasping the USB in his hand Tony closes his eyes and starts reading the file names.

‘Family, Wolff Gang, Ravens, Finances, Members’

Tony zeros in on the important things of the files. Easily scanning the members and finances to find out the Gang is in fact very rich and that the member's list is all people long dead.

“How is it the gang is still around it Derek was the last surviving member”

Tony questions Zac who has approached Derek at this point and began unhooking everything attached to the old man. Tony takes a moment to observe how reverently Zac treats the remains of his Uncle.

“The Wolff Gang stopped working on a membership base, we use Ravens now instead. I suggest you save family for last and look through the Wolff Gang and Ravens files first”

Zac doesn’t look up when he says this, only continues on his task at hand.

 

Tony nods though he knows that Zac can’t see it and checks the file titled Ravens. It takes everything in him not to open the Family file and hopefully find what he’s really here for, Arno. Because he knows it’s unlikely that someone didn’t keep tabs on where and how Arno Stark was doing, especially the Wolff Gang. But Tony also knows that on some level he isn’t ready for the information that could come, especially if it ends up being bad news, which is something he hadn’t thought about but now comes to the realization of it being a possibility.

            The Raven's file ends up being more than he expected. A lot more. The Wolff Gang was worldwide. Members or people that were loyal to the group without actually being in it. Favors stacked on favors. From politicians right down to the janitorial staff of major companies. The Ravens were all like spies and yet some were completely normal people. From ages of spreading its wealth out and helping those in need Wolff Gang had created a network of people who worked for them.

But the most interesting part was the way in which information was passed to the Wolff Gang. It used a code through Social Media. They were called Feathers and were essentially clues left by the Ravens for the Wolff Gang to check into certain things that may be of interest. As it stood Wolff Gang seemed to be a humanitarian organization that provided anything a family living poverty could ask for and then on the other side promoted and pressured political agendas to help those families and those who were discriminated against in any capacity.

It was so intricate that Tony silently wondered how they could possibly keep everything so organized. And then it hit him.

“You guys have an AI?!”

Tony states this more then questions it, there was no other way that the Wolff Gang could keep track of everything happening, including the social media posts unless they had a highly advanced AI working for them. Zac seems to be amused by his outburst and gives a slight smirk.

“It’s all there”

The deep voice says before Zac pulls a phone out of his pocket and steps from the room.

Tony frowns at the others broad back as he exits, not enjoying the lack of information even though it’s in his hands. Once again entering the file, Tony this time searches through the Raven information for AI. When nothing is forthcoming he switches folders to Wolff Gang. There lies the information on the AI the Wolff Gang uses. But it’s suspiciously void of real information.

 Andrew is the name of the AI but the origins and creators name are both blank. It mostly states how the AI takes care of most of the Gangs information in resources including the flow of money. Wolff Gang owned quite a lot of shares in major companies including SI, on top of that they also owned retail property, though most were used for the homeless and the poor, with a school or two thrown in, but a few were warehouses, factories, office buildings, etc.

Tony blinked back to reality as more people walked in, immediately going on the defensive Tony names every exit and weapon he can find in the room. But as Zac follows behind Tony calms down and realizes that the people who came in were more focused on his Uncles body than him.

“Oh, poor man. He was so good to my family and I. He will be missed terribly, there are very few people like him left in this world. We will make sure he has a proper burial Mr. Mancer”

One of the older men says this in German before gesturing for a younger and stronger gentleman to take the body.

And just like that Tonys Uncle is gone. The people take the machines with them and a woman steps in behind to making the bed. The room looks as if only Zac and Tony were the only ones ever there, and a hollow feeling fills Tony's gut at the fact that such an important man could die and seemingly cease to exist so easily.

Tony wonders if this is a death that awaits all people who do good, but never claim responsibility for their deeds even when it has changed the lives of billions for the better.

Tony closes his eyes and dives back into the information on the Wolff Gang and finds the exact moment that the Gang had turned into an Organization. There had been a Civil War of sorts in 1977 that was lead by a man whose name is suspiciously blank the file briefly mentions looking in the family folder. But essentially the Civil War was over the direction the Gang should take and whether or not to move towards more stealthy and secretive operations or to use violence and mayhem to get things done. The end result was the death of multiple members and innocence.

This led to a drastic decline in membership and in the end resulted in the Gang going idle for a number of years, though that time was very much spent accumulating wealth. Then in 2003, the Gang seems to boom again when Zachariah Mancer joins, likely because of the AI he brings with him. It's hard to believe that things can turn around in such a short time as 14 to 15 years.

Tony opens his eyes at this only to see Zac staring at him curiously.

“If you’re finished with the other files now would be a good time to have a look at the family folder”

Zac stands in the doorway as he says this his hood pulled up and covering his hair. In his hands, he has some car keys.

“I’ll leave you here and if you need me you only need to call, I already know what it says but I'm not going far. I’m your personal assistant now and a friend if we get along well enough I suppose. Andrew will likely contact you in his own time, he's a little shy-”

Zac flinches at this word as if someone has yelled loudly in his ear before shaking his head in what seems to be annoyance.

-he’s _reserved_ ”

The word is said with an overwhelming amount of sarcasm, that Tony can’t help but raise his eyebrow. Zac only points to his head and the metal pieces on the side of it

“I can hear him, Andrew”

Is the only answer he gives to the perceived question. And Tony understands because he and Edwin can talk to each other that way too. After all, Zac has the same powers as Tony it should be no surprise the other has a similar ability. But Tony can’t help but feel a little disgruntled at not being as unique anymore nevermind the fact that Harley has something just as similar except he just shoots lighting from his body and can absorb electricity.

“Anyways, be very prepared for the information you are going to find. It might answer some questions you’ve always had”

With that Zac disappears around the corner and Tony realizes in a disturbed fashion that he can’t feel Zac. That his entire presence was completely covered from his nervous system to his energy source. Tony had never met someone completely invisible to his senses. It was discomforting to know it is possible.

Shaking slightly Tony sucks in a breath and opens the folder labeled family. The first thing he notices is a family tree. And curiosity gets the better of him, Tony opens it and can’t help sucking in a breath of air.

 

 

 

 

Not only is it a surprise to see his GrandUncle had a child but that child was Harley's father! Emil Weber was his cousin, and Harley directly related to him. Tony looks more into Emil and finds that he was the bastard child of his granduncle who had slept with a Nazi woman. It wasn’t until later that Derek knew about Emil when his mother died and he found Wolff Gang but Godfrey was already dead. Derek allowed Emil to join the gang but the man believed that Derek was running it into the ground and he should have been the one on top considering he was Godfrey's son. Emil had started the Wolff Gang Civil War, and when he lost he fled Germany to go to the States to hide out when he met Sarah Keener. Even though he was old he aged slowly because of a mutation he had. And Sarah later married him likely unaware of his Gang connections.

When Emil felt like someone, not Wolff Gang from what the information said, was targeting him, he left to keep Sarah and Harley safe. After that Wolff Gang lost track of him but it seems they believed Hydra might have gotten ahold of him because of his Sharp Shooter Mutation and used him as an assassin.

Tony takes a deep breath and tilts sideways almost falling but catches himself on the wall of the room. He’s suddenly glad that no one was here with him because he doesn’t think he’ll ever be ready to tell someone how fucked up his family is.

Leaning his back against the wall Tony slides down it until he’s seated on hardwood floors.

“I don’t know if I can do this”

Tony whispers this to himself and slides a hand through his hair only now just realizing that he’s covered in a cold sweat. His heart is beating fast and he can feel his own powers getting a little unruly. Tony tightens his hold on them and takes deep breaths for a min before opening his eyes.

He _needs_ to do this, Needs to know who his family _really_ is.

Opening the family folder again Tony looks for the person he really wants to know about.

Arno

Instead of a plethora of information, he finds only an address. Tony is upset but knows that wherever this address leads, he’ll find all his answers at the end of it. With that Tony stands up and heads out the room.

“AHHHHH!!”

Tony jumps and screams, his heart in his feet as he turns the corner to the living and sees Zac lounging in a chair. The other male still has his hood up but Tony can clearly see his unimpressed look. Tony seriously hadn’t felt him in the house and had assumed the other left.

“I said I’d be close by, and I _live_ here”

Zac says this slowly like Tony’s a special child in need of extra teaching and help. Tony just looks at the other male and has a foreboding feeling that this is going to happen quite a lot.

“If you’re leaving the room, then you likely saw the address. I'll take you to Arno, I know the way. Unless you’d rather go it alone”

Zac says this with a smile on his face, Tony isn't sure whether or not it is a pleasant one. And that worries him.

“Alone, I think this is something between brothers”

Tony says this, but he’s nervous. He doesn’t know if this is something he’s strong enough to do alone. Zac nods and throws some keys at Tony, it's not the ones to the Tesla but to a Corolla.

“No worries I'll be nearby, always. The car you can use is in the garage along with directions, though I’m sure you don't need them since you have a mental GPS right inside your head”

Tony’s nods his head and starts to head to the car already feeling it in the garage to know which door leads to it.

“One more note of caution, or consider it advice, maybe even a recommendation. Stop by the Das Madchen Bluse, its a bar near the address, talk to the man at the bar who looks old as dirty with straw-colored hair. Do that BEFORE you go to that address, it'll answer more questions then Arno will. Believe me. Just ask him about an incident in 1987. He’ll know what you're talking about”

Zac says all this with that unsettling smile plastered on his face. It oddly reminds Tony of his own plastic smile that he uses for the media. And Tony can't help but wonder how old of a bar Zac is sending him to for it to be called The Woman's Blouse.

Tony however nods and heads out the door. As he gets into the car, he grips the steering wheel hard. This was going to be the longest drive of his life.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

When Tony pulls up to the bar in the small town of Freienwill, Germany he knew immediately that it was old. It was a medium-sized pub with an old brick and mortar style you could only find in Europe. Above the door hung the pub sign telling Tony that this was, in fact, The Woman's Blouse. Tony will admit to the fact that he might have dallied outside in the car for a minute, but you couldn’t blame him for being nervous. This man would tell him about Arno. He’d be telling him something that Arno himself couldn’t say.

Sucking in a shaky breath Tony got out the car and headed to the pub's entrance. Once again taking a fortifying breath Tony goes into the bar.

Inside there aren’t many townspeople and the ones there are mostly eating and not drinking alcohol. Tony guesses that makes sense considering it was a little after midday. He only vaguely remembers his plane landing in the early morning and wonders silently how time has flown by.

No one spares him a glance when he walks in the door and Tony quickly spots the person that he's there to talk to. The man is severely balding and definitely well aged, but if not for the hair loss and the haggard look about himself Tony would say that at one point he had been very handsome.

Taking a seat next to the man, Tony orders some whiskey from the barkeep. He feels like he’ll need the liquid courage even though he's no longer affected by it.

“Yer, here for the story, ain't ya?”

The mans German is deep and accented in a way that Tony isn’t used to. But even then it's understandable for someone who's learned German since they were young. When the man speaks he also doesn’t look at Tony, instead, he stares at some distant spot on the wall while nursing what looks to be a watered down drink of some kind.

“Only reason I knew is ‘cause folk only come here lookin to talk to me when they want to hear the story”

The man gets this tired look on his face. Like someone who bore the burden of a thousand sins upon their shoulders. And perhaps he did, Tony didn’t know and honestly, he was hard-pressed to care. He wanted to know what this man had to do with Arno Stark. Or what he knew about him.

“Back in 1987 Mutants weren’t seen much as a good thing. ‘Round these parts people were real prejudice towards them and made sure anyone who looked or acted differently knew they weren’t welcome in this here town”

The man paused and took a sip of his drink. Tony felt it was likely to gather courage rather than to actually taste the liquor. The barkeep returned with Tony's drink and gave the older man next to Tony wary eyes. Like he was worried the man would up and die at any moment.

“Back then the town Mutant Hunter, Victor Fuchs delighted in portraying Mutants as demons after human souls. His wife, a very religious woman and well respected by the other women, Anna often made sure the other occupants of the town knew just how bad consorting with Mutants were in the eyes of God. They had a son named Fynn who you could call the leader of the older teenage boys, they were bullies and troublemakers, the lot of them. But most turned a blind eye because it was a small town and no one blamed some kids getting restless every now and again”

Tony's annoyance seemed to rise gradually. He wanted to know about Arno, not the inner workings of a small town.

“I'm here to hear about Arno, not to rush you but I’m not seeing the connection”

At Tony's words the man's eyes widened and for once he turned his head to look. Just as quickly as his eyes got big they narrowed.

“Yer the first to know the name of the boy in the story before I’ve said it. What's this story to you child?”

At the man's accusatory tone, Tony snaps without giving it much thought.

“I’m his brother”

This is said through gritted teeth as Tony snarls at the older male. With this admission between them the man's eyes take on a look of deep suspicion before it looks like guilt creeps in. Something else starts to form on the male's face, but before Tony can even begin to name it the other turns his head away.

“Then you’ll wanna hear the story the way I tell it. Don't interrupt this time”

If Tony could curse at this moment he would. But instead, he controls himself and takes a large gulp of his whiskey enjoying the burn as it goes down his throat.

“Okay, tell me”

Tony is resigned to hear the long story so he gets comfortable.

“Flynn and his crew of unruly teenage boys had the run of the place for the most part. All except one couple who lived on the outskirts of town. Edmund and Ada Wainwright. They had both grown up in town but had always been a bit different. More accepting of others and often clashed with the Fuchs. It was a town rumor that they had a son, one they adopted that was born with some physical deformities. No one really questioned it, it was right up their alley to do things like that. But Flynn and the other boys liked to mess with their farm especially ‘cause no one would stop them from doin’ it to the town ‘freaks’. Ada and Edmund never told them to stop and type of folk they were they likened it to boys playing games”

The man turned back to Tony at this point weaving his story elegantly. The genius could practically paint a picture of the family. And he begrudgingly understood why the other man told the story this way. It got you better connected to the people.

“Well, one night Flynn and his gang decided to play a real nasty joke on the Wainwrights. Most of their other jokes were harmless enough, placing tools elsewhere, or making the roosters think it was morning so they’d crow, or putting the cows and horses in the same pen. Nothing to really go up in arms about. None of the animals or crops were harmed, but Flynn wanted to know how far they could go before the Wainwrights got mad. No one had ever seen them upset before even when they got into disagreements with Flynn’s parents. So Flynn and his friends decided to tip their cows. An ugly practice that could hurt the cow or the person doin’ the tipping should the cow kick. As it stood they got one cow tipped to the ground fighting her enough to scream quite loudly. When the Wainwrights lights didn’t come on the kids decided to do another one. But as they went to tip the next cow over they met the devil himself”

Tony had a sinking feeling in his gut as the older man continued the story. He knew something was about to happen and he wasn’t going to like it.

“From on top of the cow, a creature with skin as black as night and eyes an acid yellow attacked them. Of course, the creature mostly snarled at them to leave and all the boys took off, but Flynn froze in the spot from fear. When the creature saw the other wasn’t moving he hissed at him causing Flynn to give a scream, the cow got scared herself and bucked a little. The end result was Flynn running home to his Pa and Ma with a sprained arm and a story about a demon attacking him at the Wainwright farm. His Pa, Victor knew what it was, but his Ma, Anna took the story and ran with it to the other families. She began making the story more and more elaborate as she went through it. The creature gained horns, claws, sharp teeth, and red eyes. It tried to eat her son and his friends. And hysteria gripped the people. Victor went to the Wainwrights and questioned them but when they kicked him off their land without answering questions on what Victor knew was a mutant, he told the others townspeople that they had summoned something unholy. Fear gripped the people…”

The man trailed off at this but Tony knew that people always did dumb things when fear was a defining factor in it.

“What did they do?”

The man looked at Tony and smiled sadly, sorrow touched every bit of his face.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

            It started pouring outside. Tony hadn’t even noticed he was soaked through, he felt numb, felt like his heart had been ripped from his chest. The smell of wet Earth greets him. Leaves and grass crumble under his feet and the storm clouds overhead darken allowing no sun to break through. The small area is silent no bugs, no birds, nothing. The song of Death.

            Glancing up, the tree branches overhead seemed to reach out endlessly swallowing the black sky. Water clings to him from the rain and thunderclaps overhead. He remembers hearing the story of what happened.

            He looks down at the ground beneath the tree. Here sits Deaths golden medal of triumph.

The old man at the bar, now a name to the face of the story, Flynn Fuchs. The townspeople had come with their pitchforks and torches like a modern day witch hunt. They had demanded answers of the Wainwrights. When they didn’t get them the Wainwrights had barracked themselves inside their house. Fear fueling the mob, they had set the house on fire hoping to smoke them out. But the house was old, had been in Edmunds family for generations. It burned too quickly and trapped them inside. The Wainwrights had been burned alive and none of the villagers hadn’t cared enough to come back for the bodies until years later.

            And then had only buried them under a young tree the now stood tall over him. Flynn had come back only to assuage his own guilt, he’d fallen in love with a Mutant woman and watched her struggles even as he loved her. She had died in childbirth and Flynn had only returned to his own family farm after the death of both his parents because he had been kicked from his family the moment he pronounced his love for a mutant. Only then did he remember the mutant he had wronged himself. Only then did he care about Ada, Edmund, and Arno.

            “AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!”

            Tony screamed at the top of his lungs, but it was overshadowed by the sound of thunder cracking across the sky. He then fell to his knees and gripped the cold stone in front of him.

            He was too late, always too late. He hadn’t been there when Arno needed him. Hadn’t even known to be there for his twin.

            A sob wrecked through Tony's body and the rain got harder until it was so thick you couldn’t see in front of you more than a few feet.

            Tony sat in front of the stone crying and screaming until his throat went sore, went quiet. Only looking up when the rain suddenly stopped hitting his head.

            Zac stood next to Tony holding an umbrella.

            “Why didn't you tell me!?”

            Tony felt an irrational anger grip him as he looked at Zac. He wanted to blame him, wanted to blame Flynn, wanted to burn the town to the ground and make them pay the price in blood for what they had taken from him. But Tony also knew that wasn’t what the Wainwrights would have wanted. Knew they loved more deeply than anyone ever had the right to.

            “You needed to find out yourself. Needed to hear it”

            Behind Zac, the burned shell of a house could be seen. Like a carcass left empty for vultures to pick clean.

Tony snatched his eyes away and allowed Zac to pull him to his feet. Allowed Zac to drag him away from the tree. But the image beneath it would always be burned into his mind.

‘Here lies Ada, Edmund, and Arno Wainwright’; a gravestone that Tony had buried his heart at.  

His Blues Eyes flashing with the deepest sorrow known to man.

 


End file.
